Bloom (1999)
for solo cello
1. emerging
2. playful
3. hushed
Duration: 12 minutes
Transformation is a theme common to all three movements in this work. The first movement, emerging, interprets the process as an intense struggle. Structured as a large wedge shape, the movement begins softly and gradually builds in successive waves of increasing and unrelenting tension. In the second movement, playfuI, this tension gives way to a sense of levity, yet even this scherzo has moments that echo the aggressiveness of the previous movement. In hushed, there is, at last, an arrival at a quiet stasis through repetitions of a simple motive that appears with only slight variations.