Interventions

For Solo Cello

Program Notes:

Interventions is a reflective work that highlights the idea of innocence and was written during the

COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, the pandemic intervened many lives and brought attention to many of societies’ issues. Being isolated at home, it has given me exposure to the harsh realities of this world and issues that I had never dwelled upon before. When beginning the piece, I was set on writing about a folk story. But eventually, I realized that the notes I wrote were a reflection about how I felt during the time. This was something I realized towards the end of writing the piece. Halfway through, I lost track of the conceptual thought of the piece. Yet somehow my hands kept writing. Almost as if my feelings took over my writing than some German folklore. The idea of innocence dominates the underlying meaning to the piece. Many of us grow up with reality being shadowed until we reach the point where we are confronted and lose the vision of innocence. The piece’s classical/baroque style was written to resemble the purity and vision of innocence. It presents several different elements in various styles, tempos, tonalities, etc. These elements are built upon and finishes with developed subordinate ideas. There is a contrasting section in the middle of the piece that highlights the cello’s beautiful sound. Some parts of the section originated from hymns by Johan Scheffler and the rest of the piece returns to the ideas presented before with slight variation. The idea of innocence is very subjective and is merely a representation of my personal experience. But there are

numerous ways to interpret ideas and my hope is to present the journey of transformation.