Metasomatic: Apparitions was a continuation of these explorations, but I reversed the position of the trill from the left hand to the right hand, which had a dramatic impact on the nature of the piece. While in the first piece, the right hand was frequently static in terms of tone production and the action happened primarily in the left hand, the opposite is true in Metasomatic II. The bow becomes much more influential in what harmonics or multiphonics are going to be audible at any given time. While the formal shape of the piece is very similar to the first piece, the focal points are quite different. I became fascinated by how unpredictable the bow can be when searching for partials. For example, in the second half of the piece, during a long loop section, I encourage as many harmonics and multiphonics to emerge as I can find. As I repetitively glide a fixed interval from one point to another, quickly alternating between two strings, I slowly inch the bow towards the bridge over a long period of time, until eventually, a constellation of high partials float in the atmosphere over a recognizable pattern, creating a real acoustic polyphony.

Throughout the piece, I was also fascinated by the impression of tonality that resulted in the chosen tuning (B-G-C#-A), where the lower two strings create an impression of B-minor/G-major and the upper two strings evoke C#-minor/A-major. Because I was invoking tonality without using actual functional harmonies, or using modalities in other words, the choice of pitches became much more reduced. Once again, I had to trust my ears as my guide. This isn’t to say that the piece is tonal or even modal, but that the tuning, resulting overtones, and choice of chords creates the illusion of familiar harmonic progressions.