Cellist ARNE DEFORCE

>> 

Eos for cello solo (1998)

Up until now, James Dillon has composed two works for solo cello, Parjanya-vata in 1981 and Eos in 1998. Both pieces have in common the notion of being based on dance forms in the broadest sense of the word, as kinesis and resistance. In some regards Eos is not as technically demanding as Parjanya-vata, but its sounds, its complex of deyanmics and textures, move luminously fast between light and shadow. The structure of the work is focused on some fixed centres of pitch and pulsation, moments where the dance takes place, functioning as atmospheric sonic attractors. Dillon had in mind a spontaneous and rapidly-changing texture of sounds.
The title refers to the Greek Titan godess of dawn, Eos, who rose from her home at the edge of Oceanos, the ocean that surrounds the world, to herald her brother Helios, the Sun. The dawn goddess, Eos with "rosy fingers" opened the gates of heaven so that Helios, her brother, could ride his chariot across the sky every day. In Homer her saffron-colored robe is embroidered or woven with flowers; rosy-fingered and with golden arms, she is pictured on Attic vases as a supernaturally beautiful woman, crowned with a tiara or diadem and with the large white-feathered wings of a bird. From The Iliad: Now when Dawn in robe of saffron was hastening from the streams of Oceanus, to bring light to mortals and immortals, Thetis reached the ships with the armor that the god had given her. —Iliad xix.1

Eos was commissioned by KölnMusik for the Bach Festival in 1999, and was dedicated to Rohan de Saram and Dr. Annette Wolde.

© Arne Deforce

A live recording can be obtained from info@arnedeforce.be