Ko — Hush 

Category: Chamber Music

Hush (2012)

Tonia Ko (b. 1988)

 

Player 1: Cello and voice

Player 2: Percussion (vibraphone — with bow, sandpaper blocks, 4 flower pots — specific pitches not necessary, cowbell, small nipple gong, medium tom-tom) and voice.

 

 

Program note:

Hush, written for the adventurous duo New Morse Code, maps the concept of speech and song onto the instrumental combination of percussion and cello. Taking excerpts from Virginia Woolf’s short story, “The String Quartet,” the performers convey the busy-ness of speech and conversation contrasted with the simplicity of song. The metaphor lends itself to extended roles for both performers– unpitched (un-singing) percussion render spoken words, while the cantabile cello sounds dovetails into vocal singing. The middle movement reminds listeners of the worth in silences, which emerge when we care to hush. —Tonia Ko

 

Annotated by Xin Yi Chong