For Natalie

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For Natalie for solo cello was written in the summer of 2010 for my friend and cellist Natalie Spehar.  The work was revised in 2019.  This is my first work for a solo string, woodwind, or brass instrument.  There are many restrictions that are naturally inherent in writing for a single one of these instruments, and in confronting the restrictions of string instruments, I did not want to fall into the trap of relying on double stops using open strings or the typical double-stop intervals.  I feel that these have been overused in solo string works and my ear is tired of them.  My solution was to change the tuning of the bottom string so that the lowest pitch playable on the cello would be the G a perfect fourth below the normal standard range.  This then provided me with new pitches to utilize and larger double-stops between the bottom two strings, as they are now an octave apart instead of a fifth.  This new tuning is exploited while I create a kind of groove by the use of extended techniques. 

Premiered January 29, 2012 by Natalie Spehar at the Church of the Holy City in Washington, DC.