Program Notes
Before I started writing this piece I had noticed that our cat had become fixated on one corner of the wall in our Austin apartment. Days later at 3AM there was a rustling sound next to the headboard of our bed, the cat went nuts. Not knowing what was producing the sound, we called it the “Wall Creature” until eventually we witnessed a squirrel scurry into a crack in the brick wall of our building. Shortly after came the squirrel babies, then juvenile squirrels.
It was during this time that I began recording the sounds of squirrels as they performed their night calisthenics, and morning mocking of the cat through the window. This work focuses on some of those interesting sounds — at times using the viola to imitate and combat field recordings of squirrels as they scurry through the walls.