Cloth (2024) 8'

program note

The viola is the unsung hero – the middle voice – sturdy, strong, and steady. In Cloth the viola wildly weaves a warf of arpeggios – like the over-and-under threads of a loom. Fragments of material fill in, increase the density, and illuminate threads of color within the fabric. Cloth is both practical and personal, intimate and grand, economical and extravagant, as the nine violas become one large instrument.
Cloth was written for violist Sào Soulez Larivière, with whom I workshopped the piece through its various stages of creation.