GELI LI
COMPOSER
Vertical Scaling - for violin, cello, clarinet, and piano (2025)
In Vertical Scaling, sound does not travel forward—it grows. Instead of unfolding as a horizontal narrative, the music breathes vertically, expanding and contracting through layers of timbre, register, and density. Like an architectural form pulled upward by an unseen force, the sonic structure stretches, compresses, and reshapes itself.
The piece explores how sound fills space: how materials rise upon one another, sometimes in stark opposition, sometimes in fragile balance. Transformation occurs not through melody or rhythm, but through shifting textures and the interactions between independent gestures. Each layer enters with its own identity, yet together they form a living, interdependent sonic ecosystem.
Vertical Scaling was commissioned by Copland House for its CULTIVATE 2025 Emerging Composers Institute and premiered on June 10, 2025, at Elebash Hall at the The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.