Neil Rolnick: Cello Ex Machina by neilrolnick

by Neil Rolnick
performed by Ashley Bathgate (cello & laptop computer)
from "Neil Rolnick: Ex Machina" (Innova CD 950) released 2016
© Copyright 2015 by Neilnick Music (BMI)

Writing this piece for Ashley Bathgate, cellist for the Bang On A Can All-Stars, was a unique and rewarding experience, not just because she’s a spectacularly talented and accomplished cellist (which she is), but also because she is utterly unafraid of technology, eager to explore the possibilities it presents, and engaged enough to toil through crashes and malfunctions, in order to get to the musical heart of the piece.

Cello Ex Machina is the most recent of the pieces on this CD. It was composed with the explicit goal of eventually making the piece something that Ashley can perform on her own, without me playing the computer. And this is, in fact, how she now performs the piece, playing the very demanding cello part while controlling the computer with pedals and with her articulations and dynamics on the cello.

This piece aspires to an orchestral sound world, with the depth and variety of sound you might expect from a large ensemble, not from a solo cello. There are layers of voices, contrasting timbres, and opportunities for the performer to play freely within the musical structures.

The title means: the cello emerging from the machine. But I don’t think of it as describing a futuristic sci-fi world of machine-like automated cellos. Instead, I imagine a symbiotic world in which the cello motivates the machine to sing, the computer motivates the cello to expand its voice, and together they can construct sweet, expressive and complex musical worlds, different from what either can produce alone.