resolve

Composer note
Resolve closely examines the gesture of the appoggiatura – a musical “leaning” gesture (appoggiare means “to lean” in Italian), the gesture of one harmony dissolving or collapsing into another. Typically, the first of the two harmonies in this gesture is dissonant, and the second is a resolution. I wanted to see what would happen if the gesture’s first harmony – which usually has to be somewhat wide, in order to collapse into a smaller space – is already quite tense, quite closely spaced. This narrowness of the harmonic space creates a sense of great effort, a sense of tunneling through some intractable substance – which requires a different kind of “resolve” on the part of the performer.

— Matthew Aucoin