Eric Chasalow: Over The Edge

Speculum Musicae String Quartet; Fred Sherry, cello; Patricia Spencer, flute; Christine Schadeberg, soprano; Bruno Schneider; horn; Amy Knoles, Arthur Jarvinen, percussion Eric Chasalow (b 1955), who grew to aesthetic maturity as Postmodernism was evolving, points (not at all surprisingly) to jazz as part of the family tree. In 1983, Chasalow created a set of three works for soloist and electronic sounds. The composer fashioned each, for cello, for soprano, and for flute, with particular accomplished performers in mind, taking his inspiration, he says, "from their personal styles and energy." Chasalow composed Hanging in the Balance (1983) for the redoubtable cellist Fred Sherry. He envisions it as establishing twin relationships between cellist and tape: "At times a dialogue between two distinct parts ... at others, a single coherent instrument [formed] by the collision of live with electronic sounds. The effect of the latter relationship is to expand the timbral possibilities of the