Program Note for Secret Thoughts (1986)
for unaccompanied cello
Perhaps because its range encompasses that of the human
voice, the 'cello has always been, for me, the most intimate and expressive
of instruments. Secret Thoughts was written to explore the instrument's
great expressive potential, an approach that inspired music of a highly
personal, even private, nature - hence the title. About ten minutes in
length, it is a free fantasy in roughly three sections, the middle one
being slower and featuring an extended passage of two-part counterpoint
in a high register, and a pizzicato section marked quasi chitarra.
The work was completed in July 1986 and was premiered in San Francisco
later that year by Lawrence Granger, who has recorded it on CRI SD 567.
Secret Thoughts is dedicated to my son, Christian, the best rock
star-to-be that I know {: - )