Letter One Trio for Three Celli (3:30)
Anne McAninch (2018)
Program Notes: While in residency as the guest composer at the 2018 Caroga Lake Music Festival: InterArts Symposium, I was asked by the founder of the Festival, Kyle Price, to write a work for three celli. In the spirit of collaboration across the arts, I worked with a poet also in residence, Molly Moltzen. She showed me some of her poetry from her “van Gogh” series. In this set of works, she reflected on The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, which consist of poems derived from the letters Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo about his struggle with mental illness. Molly’s method included taking words, sentences, and passages from the letters and rearranging them to make poems. The poem “Letter One” was selected because of the vivid imagery it created for me. This work depicts the cycle of mental illness that Vincent van Gogh may have experienced; times of lucidity, depression, hallucinations, anxiety, etc.
Letter # 1 I tackle light This light A starry night with cypresses. Far from wanting to hide the light under a bushel. Light, that for her sake — with a sun flooding everything. A fellow creature there in the half-light The window and your place At dusk When the lamps are lit.
F ull Score
L etter O ne
Inspired by the poetry of Molly Moltzen at the 2018 C aroga Lake Music Festival Anne McAninch
q = 102
pizz.
4 4
Violoncello 1
4 4
Violoncello 2
4 4
Violoncello 3
3
mf pizz.
pizz.
5
3
5 3
mf
3
3
3
mf
accel.Â
4
arco
V c. 1 5
5
p
5
5
ff
pp
V c. 2 p
ff
3
3
V c. 3 3
p
A 7
ff
3
q = 120 sul pont.
V c. 1 f arco
pp
f
p
f
V c. 2 3
p sul pont. V c. 3 pp
f
pp
Copyright Š Anne McAninch 2018
2
F ull Score
12
B
rit.
q = 102 pizz.
V c. 1 pp
mf pizz.
V c. 2 3
mf
pizz. V c. 3 f
pp
mf sub.
16
V c. 1 3
5
3
5
V c. 2 3 3
3
3
V c. 3
accel.
18
arco
V c. 1 5
p
5
5
5
ff
5
5
V c. 2 p
ff 3
3
V c. 3 p
3
ff
3
pp
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C
q = 112
21
3 ord.
sul pont.
sul pont. V c. 1 p
3
f
mp
pp
arco V c. 2 3
p
3
ff
3
pp
mp
pp
sul pont.
sul pont. V c. 3 f
D
26
p
f
p
3
f
E
sul tasto
V c. 1 p arco V c. 2 sul tasto
sul tasto
V c. 3
sul pont.
34
V c. 1 f
pp
p
f
V c. 2 3
p sul pont. V c. 3 pp
f
pp
4
F
F ull Score
q = 102 pizz.
rit.Â
38
V c. 1 pp
mf pizz.
V c. 2 3
mf
pizz. V c. 3 f
pp
mf sub.
42
V c. 1 3
5
3
5
V c. 2 3 3
3
3
V c. 3
44
arco
V c. 1 5
p
5
5
5
ff
pp
V c. 2 5
p
5
ff
3
3
arco
V c. 3 p
3
ff
3
F ull Score
G 47
5
sul pont.
V c. 1 pp
f
f
p
f
arco V c. 2 3
pp sul pont. V c. 3 pp
f
pp
H
52
V c. 1 pp V c. 2 3
sul pont. V c. 3 f
57
pp
I
sul tasto
V c. 1 pp V c. 2 mp sul tasto V c. 3
3
6 V c. 1
V c. 2
V c. 3
60
F ull Score
rit.Â