Artist Beverley Bennett made musical/dance visual score series, Cacophony. Beverly asked me to compose music to them on the cello. I applied a different methodology for each one. These works open up music making and performing to all musicians; regardless of training, ability to read music or skill-level.
This one is MAINTAIN MOOD. To me, the most interesting method and the hardest to execute consistently. I sat in front of the image, looking into it rather than at it. Opening myself up to receive an internal response rather than an intellectual one. As I started playing my eyes scanned slowly over the image like it was a suffolk landscape, and I was a child again imagining adventures for animals and myself amongst the rolling woods and fields where I'd explore over summer holidays. And I felt this sea of sadness rise up in me. And that is exactly what you are hearing.
After that initial play, I found it very hard to engage openly with the score. Always wanting to reproduce what had happened that first time, which then felt forced.
