Cuts is a compositional étude of singular focus. Throughout this work, harmonic, rhythmic, and textural characteristics remain invariant, while the music's registral, dynamic, and timbral aspects witness continual mutation. The first minute of Cuts presents basic materials, and the remaining music is realized through their temporal, directional, and parametrical redistribution. Cuts is also an étude for the performer, as a certain virtuosity is required to bring the changing details of the musical surface into relief.
This work was written for Stefan Litwin and is dedicated to Milton Babbitt on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. I am grateful to the MacDowell Colony for granting me the opportunity to compose this work during a residency there in June, 1996.
Jason Eckardt