Cellist Ashley Bathgate tells a story about the very first time she performed ASH, a six-movement work jointly written for her by the six members of Sleeping Giant, a composers collective comprising Timo Andres, Christopher Cerrone, Jacob Cooper, Ted Hearne, Robert Honstein, and Andrew Norman. The piece was the end result of a project titled Bach Unwound, for which each composer had been tasked with using a movement from one of Bach’s unaccompanied Cello Suites as a springboard.
When Bathgate gave the premiere of ASH at Le Poisson Rouge in January 2016 as part of Metropolis Ensemble‘s Resident Artists series, she opened with Norman’s For Ashley, about which the composer had written:
My piece takes inspiration from the Prelude of the Fourth Suite, and like that piece it uses the repetition and variation of a single pattern to enact change over a long arc of time.
“About one minute into it, I broke a string, because I was playing so hard on top of the bridge trying to do what he had asked,” Bathgate relates now. “First and only time that has happened so far. Felt like I earned a Norman badge of honor! Of course, not at the time… at the time I think I turned bright red and nearly forgot how to change a string backstage.”
On Sept. 27, Bathgate – widely known for her dynamic work in the Bang on a Can All-Stars – will release a recording of ASH on New Amsterdam Records. (Note that as these words are being typed, only a single copy of the CD remains unclaimed via pre-order on Bandcamp, where the album also is available for download in a variety of file formats.) In honor of the pending release – and with gratitude to Bathgate and New Amsterdam – National Sawdust Log is proud to present the world premiere of a new video featuring Norman’s string-snapping For Ashley.
Via email, Bathgate elaborated on her feelings about For Ashley:
For Ashley is inspired by the Prelude of the Fourth Suite for solo cello by Bach. Just like Bach’s Prelude, it sets the tone for what’s to come and blows the doors wide open. It’s making an entrance. The tempo is brisk, but the evolution of it is patient, elegant, and athletic. The music is changing (almost) imperceptibly from moment to moment in pitch, rhythm, and timbre. If you blink you might miss these little details, but the whole of it will knock your socks off.
Andrew’s music is always rewarding to play. For me it’s the perfect balance of music that challenges you and satisfies you at the same time: intellectually, physically, and emotionally. It grows with you. I have never once played a piece of his without discovering a new twist or turn along the way. He is a violist, so he knows strings, and I have always appreciated how he can write such beautiful music while also pushing the boundaries of the instrument. How close to the bridge can you get? How much can you squeak? How quietly and over the fingerboard can you play? What is the extreme? What is the point at which the sound teeters, where you don’t know if it’s the harmonic or the fundamental? He elicits so many different textures and colors from one’s sound, but that is often achieved with a very simple variation in gesture, be it pressure, point of contact, or velocity. It’s inventing something new, but not for the sake of being new. It’s what I would call organic music.
This piece is one of my favorites to perform live. It has that drive and excitement, which keeps you on your toes; there’s not a moment to take a breath. It’s press play and go!
If you want to hear more from ASH – which of course you do – New Amsterdam posted a video for Jacob Cooper’s movement, Ley Line, in July. ASH will be available in stores and online Sept. 27.
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