Inspiré par les excellents conseils des illustres devanciers, l'auteur a voulu ne mettre dans cette méthode que des exercices vraiment utiles et qui doivent donner aux élèves une connaissance du mécanisme du violoncelle suffisamment approfondie pour entreprendre sans difficulté l'étude des oeuvres de Duport, Dotzauer, Romberg...
Texte en allemand, anglais et français

Inspired by Boulez's multi-cello piece 'Messagesquisse? and John Scofield's inspired funk number 'Protocol?, 'Shift, Trip? is an unrelenting moto perpetuo for amplified cello and pre-recorded guitars, brass and percussion. Although choreographed early on the piece is designed to stand alone. It demands virtuosity and great stamina from the performer over a five and a half octave range and requires exact synchronisation with the recorded backing track whose shifting rhythmic patterns trip up in unpredictable ways, as the title implies. I'm indebted to Lester Barnes for guiding me through his vast guitar, brass and explosion effects sample library, mixing the results, and to percussionist Julian Warburton for hitting a lot of metal in interesting ways. Zoë Martlew 2014 / Violoncelle

The image and concept of this piece is easiest to describe by using the visual images of the Dutch artist M. C. Escher. He made many woodcuts where the whole surface of the picture has a figurative function often just in black and white. For example a row of white ducks 'transversing' the painting which are described by black ducks transversing in the opposite direction. In this way the two figures describe each other so to speak.In this piece melody has been approached in a similar way: a melody is used which can be framed in rhythmically different groupings - in groups of fours or fives etc- thus creating new hierarchical melodies which grow more and moreobvious to the ear. The initial melody then becomes background to the new melody until disappearing and a new rhythmical pattern is imposed on the second melody and so forth. Later the different 'rhythm melodies' are woven together creating a new perceptual image one that is at the same time actually a 'holographic' reproduction of the initial melody. The latter situation is similar to the way Bach makes hidden 3- or 4-part counterpoints in his Cello suites by intersecting the parts successively into beautifully interwoven patterns.The very static sections of the piece are chiefly inspired by the powerful singing of the buddhist-monks of Tibet who are able to relax their vocal chords to such an extent that they create an overpowering deep note not normally thought to be produced by a human voice. Figure and Ground Study I was first performed by Mats Olofson at the Numus Festival 1995.