WINGATE: LANDSCAPES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
(Version for Cello Quintet or Orchestra of Cellos)

Date:
2005

Instrumentation:
5, 10, or 15, (etc.) Violoncelli

(See also the original version for organ)
(See also the version for orchestra)
(See also the version for chorus, titled Amen)

Duration:
4'

Notes:
Wingate’s Landscapes of Consciousness has manifested many sonic personæ since its creation as an organ piece in 2005, and this transcription for cello quintet penetrates the mysteries of its psychological interiors using the cello ensemble’s peculiar commingling of bright and dusky timbres. This dark and brooding music becomes even more so under the auspices of the forest canopy of cello sounds, and the piece’s ubiquitous perfect fifths fit conveniently across the cello’s constitutional tuning arrangement, with the ensemble often radiating out to fill the far corners of the harmonic expanse. The breathtaking high note in the piece’s final moments shows off the instrument’s ability to modulate between vibrato and flautando in the rarefied æther of virtuosic aplomb. Additionally, the five cello parts may be doubled or tripled (or even quadrupled, &c.) in performance for a conspicuous upgrade in grandeur, foreshadowing the cello orchestra populating the composer’s First Symphony (‘Mythopoesis’), composed two years later.