WINGATE’S SYMPHONY No. 1: THE BOOK OF        IS

An epic piece for unaccompanied cello, Wingate’s First Symphony treats the cello as a complex polyphonic entity, exploring the outer limits of technical possibility for the instrument as well as the possibilities and prejudices inherent in the problematic Western notion of ‘symphony’. Using his own found-prose-poem The Book of        is as a kind of phantom libretto for the piece, the symphony has 50 short sections imbedded in its structure, corresponding to the 50 chapters of the text. Additionally intended by the composer to serve as a dance score for a single male dancer, this ‘symphonic’ Book of         is, through its confluence of the various artistic disciplines, seeks to tell the tale of the psychological ‘Genesis’ of humankind via the abstract realm of monumental musical motion.

The score calls upon a single cellist and his/her one cello to be responsible for multiple contrapuntal voices, using exhaustive arrays of double stops, as well as percussion effects and the occasional added tone via whistling or singing. Fortifying the simulacrum of polyphony by avoiding tell-tale solo-instrument effects such as rolled chords, the symphony’s demands upon the performer’s stamina, musicality and virtuosity are immense. Wingate’s use of ‘chin notes’ (in which the cellist must use his/her chin to stop pedal tone notes on the lowest string while the other two hands are busy elsewhere) are unique in the cello literature.

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