Cello Concerto

One of the compositions Beck wrote and completed during the chaotic time of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdown was his Cello Concerto. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, this four-movement work is not chaotic at all. In its 22 minutes it is grounded in clear forms, rich harmonies, melodic interest, and a solo cello part that is both singing and virtuosic. It has been recorded in Bulgaria by Atanas Krastev, cello, with the Sofia Session Orchestra, Grigor Palikarov.

After an arpeggio that outlines the principal tonic area of e minor, the descending major 2nd that begins the opening melodic figure in the solo cello will be seen to inform a macro harmonic structure. As noted, the first movement begins and is primarily centered in the key of e minor, broadly defined by Beck, but ultimately travels to and concludes in d minor. This harmonic structure returns as a principal focus of the final movement, but this time the music is primarily centered in the key of F# minor, broadly defined, which ultimately makes its way to close in the key of E major, bringing the concerto to a close in the original "home" tonic area.

When Beck has referred to these various keys as being "broadly defined," this reflects the fluid nature of the internal harmonic relationships found within those tonic areas. Accordingly, at any given moment there may be some modal inflections, or a passage that is somewhat pandiatonic, or a passage that is ungrounded in tonality, but where the framework of this changing tonal palette is conceptually centered in a home key or home tone that provides a certain sense of stability or direction, related to what George Perle sometimes referred to as a "centricity." In addition to the use of certain motivic and rhythmic profiles, what helps to guide and inform the movement in and through these various passages is the significant attention to counterpoint and voice-leading, how individual "voices" cohere in the vertical dimension while moving in horizontal real time. It is the detail in these sections that creates a certain sense of consistency in such tonal music. Not that Beck ever maps out every single step in a composition – no, he has stated that he relies upon and trusts his musical intuition to lead him to ideas and connections between those ideas before the Apollonian part of his brain steps in to analyze and examine what has emerged.