Dream and Toccata

Cello and electronics

Duration: 6 min.

Dream and Toccata was written to exploit different sound worlds possible within the cello by extending it with electronics. The work begins with a sort of alap, the unmeasured introduction to Indian classical works, here to the accompaniment of very high natural harmonics repeated by the digital delay as a background scrim. Similar devices are used throughout in the piece with much different effects, such as accompaniment to the electric-guitar-like ending. The piece was written for my wife, cellist Lynn Burrows, who premiered it in 1992.