rest and restless

an emotional landscape

for double bass - 2015, ca 13-14 minutes

(orchestra version)

Composed for and performed by Ryan Emerson Baird:

sound recordings

Program Note

Several of my pieces concern themselves with dichotomies, or pairs of ideas that push and pull against each other. I find that I have difficulty writing unless I have at least two distinct concepts that I can somehow “compose between.” Rest and Restless carries this process out with regards to emotional states – I would describe the piece as an “emotional landscape.” The music slowly alternates, pendulum-like, from low angst-broodings to melodic, brighter hopes, back and forth, but without letting either mood "win" over the other. Eventually these two moods meet in a climax of string rocking and emphatic textures. Throughout the work the double bass performer is often playing two strings at the same time, and contrasts the typical low range of the instrument with the soft shine of its high harmonics. An image of evening clouds comes to mind when I think of this music, my imagination being ignited by the simultaneously serene and troubled shapes of grey.