Petrified Forest National Park.
Photo: John McDonald

Op. 569b (2015-2016), for solo cello

Second part of a commission by Rhonda Rider, Petrified Forest National Park Artist in Residence, 2015, written during and after visiting the park. The first part, Two Ways, One Place was written beforehand.

For Rhonda, and to Kip Woolford, Director of the PEFO Artist in Residence Program, with gratitude.

Returns, as in:

Returning/mirroring cloud and land (cloud formations returned as rock formations–where does one end and the other begin?); return to solitude in vast space, separation from trappings (except for the rental car, which of course must be returned); day and night, different/transformed each time they return; rock rabbit wood bird wind sun scattering, scampering, disappearing, returning; the Santa Fe railroad keeps on returning with more trains, more cargo; in badlands on foot in the morning, my return to silence, texture, distance; returning on the same path, not realizing I’d “been there;” had enough, can’t take it, so at the desk again, returning to books, manuscript paper, directed thoughts, (ok, laptop), processing the overstimulation from looking, being, moving and that’s the whole thing; in the music, ideas returning, not really leaving; a return “home (?)” to integrate/understand, if possible (6:15 am departure; leave the place as you found it)…

John McDonald, in the Petrified Forest
October 21-22, 2015