Written for performer Sammy Wetstein of the Hartt Community Division, in collaboration with the New Britain Museum of American Art.

Inspired by Frederick Carl Frieseke’s painting, The Birdcage

Frederick Carl Frieseke was an American painter who spent most of his career in France, most notably painting nude figures in dappled sunlight. His style is often associated with Les Nabis, as he combined the decorative designs and expressive color with impressionist technique. In this painting, I see a woman looking through the bars of a cage at a trapped creature, and seeing a reflection of her own life. But I also see a bare shoulder, indicating a sense of rebellion through the lens of 1910 culture. In the opening rubato section of the piece, the ricochet effect of the cello represents a fluttering bird, and repeated ascending motifs are escape attempts, met with battered failure. The main exposition section is an introspective turmoil as the character grapples with beauty, dignity, rage and rebellion. Frieseke’s American techniques of using paint directly out of the tube without saturating them, and creating tactile layers with the “impasto” method, gave his paintings surrealist qualities that set him apart from other impressionist painters of the time. I chose to capitalize on this French-American fusion by employing impressionist scales (whole-tone, diminished, extended harmony) with distinctly American cello chop technique and syncopations.