1996
Resisting Stillness
for two guitars
Recording
Recording
Premieres
Broadcast Premiere
29 January 1996
William Anderson and Oren Fader, guitars
"Around New York" with Fred Childs: WNYC-FM
New York, NY
Preview
4 February 1996
Cygnus Ensemble: William Anderson and Oren Fader, guitars
Merkin Concert Hall, Abraham Goodman House
New York, NY
World Premiere
26 March-1 April 1996
William Anderson and Oren Fader, guitars
Mexican Tour:
Sixth International Guitar Festival of Morelia (Morelia Michoacan), Palacia Federal (Hidalgo y Colón), La Palma (Michoacan), Capilla de La Viga (Zocatecas)
Mexico
Work Details
Duration:
ca. 4 minutes
Publisher:
Commissioner:
Commissioned by the Cygnus Ensemble and the International Guitar Festival of Morelia (Michoacan, Mexico) for William Anderson and Oren Fader (Anderson/Fader Duo)
Sample Pages
Selected Press
"This short work is magical and restrained — an island of repose in a busy stream of contemporary music."
"Chester Biscardi's delicate and beautiful "Resisting Stillness" for two guitars opened the second half of the program"
"A fundamental lyricism has been a defining characteristic of Chester Biscardi's music throughout his career, and Resisting Stillness (1996), for the two guitars of Cygnus, is no exception."
"Luiz Mantovani and David Leisner at Weill Recital Hall began and ended the evening with duets, starting with Chester Biscardi's richly texture 'Resisting Stillness'"
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"Biscardi's approach to the two-guitar texture combines elements from SchoenbergianKlangfarbenmelodiewith aspects of Béla Bartók's technique of interlocking chords found in his string quartets to create a pointillist soundscape of continually varying depth. Biscardi achieves this effect by writing simultaneously sounded unison pitches on different frets and strings for both guitars with contrasting timbres of sul ponticello or natural and artificial harmonics sounded against normally played notes. Biscardi further enhances the effect of changing depth by specifying as many sustained, and therefore melded, sonorities as possible."
— Calvin Elliker, Notes (2001)
"Luiz Mantovani and David Leisner at Weill Recital Hall began and ended the evening with duets, starting with Chester Biscardi's richly texture 'Resisting Stillness.'"
— Allan Kozinn, The New York Times (2005)
"Chester Biscardi's Resisting Stillness was written in 1996 for the group's two guitarists, who seem to relish the chance to sound like harpists. This short work is magical and restrained — an island of repose in a busy stream of contemporary music."
— Raymond Tuttle, Fanfare (2000)
"A fundamental lyricism has been a defining characteristic of Chester Biscardi's music throughout his career, and Resisting Stillness (1996), for the two guitars of Cygnus, is no exception. Unlike the preceding three pieces of the program, this is music whose rhythmic sense is extremely fluid and leisurely, which projects its meaning above all through the delicate interplay of timbre and pitch. Like much of Biscardi's work, there is an impressionistic sensitivity to the expressive power of pure sound, wedded to a bel canto line. The two guitars in fact become like a single dreamy meta-instrument, dropping handfuls of glistening harmonics that dapple the music's surface like light on water. This work was also commissioned by the International Guitar Festival of Morelia (Michoacan, Mexico) for William Anderson and Oren Fader."
— CRI Review (2001)
"Chester Biscardi's delicate and beautiful "Resisting Stillness" for two guitars opened the second half of the program [inaugurating the new endowment at the Library of Congress called the Dina Koston and Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music]."
— Stephen Brookes, The Washington Post (2012)
"Chester Biscardi's work never fails to garner extraordinary critical praise, most recently for Anderson-Fader's performance at the Library of Congress, where the Washington Post cited the 'delicate and beautiful Resisting Stillness for two guitars.'"
— Le Cirque (2013)
"Finally, Chester Biscardi's Resisting Stillness, a beautifully atmospheric piece that seems the ideal way to end this remarkably exploratory, successful disc [Le Cirque]."
— Colin Clark, Fanfare Magazine (2014)
Chester Biscardi's Resisting Stillness blends widely spaced intervals, harmonics, scattered plucked upper register notes, occasional runs, and melting lyricism—albeit in a modern idiom—into an evocative whole.
— Robert Schulslaper, Fanfare Magazine (2014)