PIECES OF MIND & MATTER
PIECES OF MIND AND MATTER features five string duos in chronological order of their creation, composed over thirteen years. The first work, Holocene (2004), commissioned in honor of George Crumb early in Lombardi’s career, features a violin and a viola gradually working through a transpositional pattern of 11 semitones. The following violin-cello duet, Acquiesce (2006), features a 3-note ascending motive that transforms as its intervals increase and as it is transposed by the intervals contained within it.
Up next is cello-cello duet Persiguiéndose (2007), sonorous in title (taken from a Pablo Neruda poem) as well as in execution. Like the days chasing each other in the poem, the two cellos imitate one another, creating microcanons and culminating in a forceful fortissimo, before ebbing back into a mirrored pizzicato tritone.
In Phosphorescent (2008), for cello and double bass, Lombardi utilizes the anatomical differences between the instruments by combining the overlapping overtones rooted in their unique tunings (the cello in fifths and the bass in fourths). The final and most recent piece, Fracture (2017) for two violins, is a musical realization of a fractal, a culmination of the ideas which have been audibly developing since Holocene. Indeed, the piece ends much in the same suspended dissipation as the opening track.
With the mathematical precision and thoughtful string writing in PIECES OF MIND AND MATTER, the listener is immersed in a vibrant and colorful musical system which, at its core, is based in self-reflection, intricate examination, and the acknowledgment of infinite possibilities.