from scratch
Piece Information
Instrumentation: violin & piano
Duration: ~28 minutes
Date: © 2017
Premiered by:
Clara Kim & Art Williford
Each of these solos builds upon the last, getting longer and longer as the piece progresses. Between these moments, the piano and violin work together in different ways to keep the piece progressing forward.
Across all three movements the music is seeking a way to complete this story heard in the solos, but with each new chapter the meaning seems to change. The solo isn’t heard in its entirety until the final movement and so is a bit of test of our perception and memory. The violin and piano finally find a way to conclude the piece by assembling the many fragments of the solo into a theme that is both new and entirely familiar.
Program note:
The meaning of a story has a tendency to change as we experience more of it. Metaphors and motivations come into clearer focus as we grow more familiar with the arc of the narrative. Here, I tried to create something of that same experience in music. The piece has three movements that are all linked together by a repeating violin solo that keeps cutting into the flow of the music.