Ashley Bathgate - "On Being Wrong" by Christopher Cerrone

Cellist Ashley Bathgate performs "On Being Wrong," composed by Christopher Cerrone, from her new album "ASH" out now on New Amsterdam Records. Video by Four/Ten Media. The album is a collaboration with the Sleeping Giant composer collective, and inspired by J. S. Bach's timeless cello suites. Each movement of the suite was written expressly for Bathgate's distinct playing. The title of Cerrone's movement is drawn from the book "On Being and Being Just" by Elaine Scarry. He was particularly struck by the opening section where the author describes the sudden shock of seeing something incredibly familiar, as if it were the first time, and how its meaning can suddenly completely change for a viewer. As his piece unfolds, the alternating slow and fast sections are viewed again and again from different angles, until just the right one seems to reveal itself. Bathgate made discoveries about each individual composer through this process and the composers also learned about the distinct qualities of her playing. "I definitely feel that Chris has a very keen sense of harmony and texture in his writing. A simple chord change or shift in rhythmic motivity can be very cutting and direct, for both performer and listener," she explains. "That makes my job of tapping into the energy of his music very easy. I think the subject matter of Elaine Scarry's work, this idea of seeing something new in something (or someone) that you might see on a daily basis, as if it were the first time -- it's a feeling we all know and can relate to. Chris paints that feeling so well, I always have visuals of this as I play along." When Cerrone composed "On Being Wrong" he says he discovered "the multi-faceted nature of Bathgate’s abilities as a performer. "From barnstorming rhythmic energy to lyrical playing, to tech savviness, this piece tries to take all of Ashley’s skills and put them in one 6 minute burst of energy." More from Cerrone on composing "On Being Wrong:" My friend and teacher Nils Vigeland used to refer to different composers as practicing different kinds of “technologies.” It was a curious term for describing older music, but it stuck with me; Medieval music had the technology of written notation, Renaissance music had counterpoint, Baroque music had specificity of instruments, and so on. My approach to Bach’s cello suites for this project was to examine his particular compositional technology. One of the key things he exploits is the cello’s ability to play the same note in many different places on the instrument. Throughout the suites, but particularly in the Prélude from the Sixth, Bach cunningly manipulates this technology building a slow and evolving melody with repeated D’s on the second and third strings of the cello. In my own work for Ashley Bathgate, I tried to imagine a work that built further still, adding layers and layers of pre-recorded cello. The live interaction between musician and recording studio is my contribution to the technological palette of the original works. Bach’s suites are largely written in keys that are most suited to bringing out the natural resonance of the cello. Similarly, I tried to extend this notion of resonance even further, bathing the cello in a long digital reverb.