related works
Black City : Concerto for violoncello and orchestra Nº 2 / Douglas Knehans
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
vc-solo dulc pf hp sopr(offstage) 2fl(picc) 2ob 2cl 2fg(cfg) 4h 2tpt 2trb-t trb-b tb timp 3perc str
Suite Hôtel de Pékin : for symphony orchestra / Willem Jeths
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
2fl(picc) 2ob(eh) 2cl 2fg(cfg) 2h 2tpt 2trb(trb-b) tb timp 2perc str
Dead as Disco : for orchestra / Giel Vleggaar
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
2fl 2ob cl cl-b fg cfg 4h 2trp 2trb trb-b tb 3perc pf hp 2vl vla vc cb
Valse Sacrée : for orchestra / Frédéric Devreese
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
picc 2fl 2ob 2cl 2fg 4h 3tpt 2trb-t trb-b tb timp perc hp str
composition
Black City : Concerto for violoncello and orchestra Nº 2 / Douglas Knehans
Other authors:
Knehans, Douglas
(Composer)
Contains:
Letter to a Friend—(Expressive)
River on Fire—(Scherzo)
It Will Be Rain Tonight—(Passacaglia)
You Asked What the Heart Can Carry—(Cadenza)
Midst of a Burning Fiery Furnace—(Finale)
Description:
My second cello concerto Black City sits in contrast in many ways to my first cello concerto Soar. My first concerto is in one long movement with rather conventional scoring and is about striving and our innate urge to overcome and grow.
My second concerto, in contrast, is first of all on a much larger scale or ‘bigger canvas’ than the first concerto being cast in five rather long movements, each with an internal intensity that links them and creates the narrative thread of the music. Much of this music is about degradation, erosion and loss. As with most of my music I mean these somewhat geological ideas as metaphors for internal psycho-emotional change that takes place within us. As we grow and change it is not always about gain and stability but can also be about loss, diminishment and structural change. The metaphor of a rich internal city slowly eroding gave rise to the title of the work. I was extremely fortunate to come across the amazing poetry of the young American poet Dave Lucas, whose take on the decaying Midwestern cities of the United States (where I was both born and now live) had in them many internal and external metaphors that seemed so appropriate to my work.
Each movement has an inscription taken from Mr. Lucas’s poems from the volume Weather, while each also has a different structure and character despite the narrative thread that links them.
Douglas Knehans