Cello Solo - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1288214 Composed by Chris Becker. 21st Century,Classical,Contemporary,New Age. Individual part. 6 pages. Beckeresque (ASCAP) #879245. Published by Beckeresque (ASCAP) (A0.1288214). When I first saw the enormous chair Rachel Gardner and Carlos Canul constructed for A Gift from the Bower, an outdoor, multi-disciplinary group exhibition conceived by renowned artists James Surls and Charmaine Locke, I had a vision of a cellist seated in a chair on the chair, performing solo in a bower deep in the woods of Splendora Gardens. I shared this image with Rachel, who didn’t think I was nuts, and over the course of several weeks, composed a piece for unaccompanied cello to be performed at the opening of the exhibit. I was honored when cellist Patrick Moore agreed to premiere the work; his formidable technique and the deep expression he brings to his playing inspired me to embrace the challenge of composing a solo for his instrument.Knowing my piece would be performed outdoors, I was inspired to evoke the rhythm of sound events one hears in woods, especially the rise and fall of wind as it moves through branches and leaves. The very opening of the piece and later, what I hear as an extended coda, were created as moments for the cellist as much as for the listener and are performed in a sort of meditative state, calling to mind the age-old question, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?� The repeating measures of 16th notes in the piece’s demanding middle section pay tribute to two of my heroes, Terry Riley and Philip Glass. While composing the work, Bach’s Six Suites for Violoncello Solo was another important point of reference, as was double bassist Eberhard Weber's 1973 album, The Colours of Chloë.Once finished, it made sense to name the piece A Gift from the Bower since the opportunity to compose the work was a gift, and in exchange, so is the music I have composed.A Gift from the Bower premiered on April 22, 2023, by Patrick Moore at the Locke Surls Center for Art and Nature.A revised version of this piece was completed on September 5, 2023.

Cello Solo - Level 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1018897 Composed by Benjamin Harry Sajo. 20th Century,Contemporary. Individual part. 4 pages. Benjamin Sajo #6056131. Published by Benjamin Sajo (A0.1018897). Programme Notes: Icarus Also Flew takes its title from the first line of the poem Failing and Flying by Jack Gilbert. He is referring to the classical myth of Daedalus and Icarus, an inventive father and son who bravely escape from their imprisonment in a tower by collecting the disposed feathers of seabirds, then fashion wings out of them and fly away. While the story is often treated as a morality tale--listen to your elders, don’t get cocky like the young man, Icarus, who, in such an understandable state of elation, ascended too close to the sun thus causing the wings to melt and his tumbling to his Mediterranean death--what Jack Gilbert reminds us is how regardless of one’s failure, the sheer transcendental experience of mortal flight remains glorious and unforgettable. Icarus’s fall was not into a legacy of disdain and oblivion, but in truth, he had come to the end of his triumph. This piece was the first of a series I composed during the Covid-19 quarantine conditions of 2020, to serve as potential contemporary preludes for each of Ludwig van Beethoven’s nine symphonies--his two hundred and fiftieth anniversary was this year!--though they can all stand on their own on any program. The connection, in this case, is with his celebrated fifth symphony in C minor--the Fate symphony, as it is commonly known. I’ll let the listener find their own connections.About the Composer:Benjamin Sajo (b. 1988) is a Canadian composer of contemporary classical music, as well as an educator. Since developing a fiercely independent creative voice upon the completion of his studies at Western (2010) and McGill Universities (2013), he continues to find inspiration from the intersection of mythology, art, and nature upon the contemporary human experience. In 2019, he released his premiere album of original music, The Great War Sextet: Canadian War Poetry with Trombone & Strings, with support from the Ontario Arts Council. He is a member of SOCAN and the League of Canadian Composers.