The “News” aria in Nixon in China, for example, is less melody than it is declamation riding over what feels like the chords of a giant ukelele.īut in the early 1990’s, during the composition of The Death of Klinghoffer, I began to think more about melody. Harmony and rhythm were the driving forces in my music of that decade melody was almost non-existent. I could not possibly have produced such a thing in the 1980’s because my compositional language was principally one of massed sonorities riding on great rippling waves of energy. I knew that if I were to compose a violin concerto I would have to solve the issue of melody. Intervals that ought to be simple are awkward, while gestures that seem humanly impossible turn out to be rudimentary.Ī concerto without a strong melodic statement is hard to imagine. For those who have not played a violin or a cello, the physical relation of the turned-over left wrist and grasping fingers defies logic. Composers who are not string players are seriously challenged when it comes to writing a concerto, and close collaborations are the rule, as it was in this case. The proposal to write a violin concerto came from the violinist Jorja Fleezanis, a close friend and enthusiastic champion of new music.
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