Instrumentation: Solo viola and ensemble (10 players: flute/alto fl., oboe, clarinet/b.cl, tenor sax, elec. guitar, percussion, piano, violin, cello, bass); 16 min
First Performance: Mostly Mozart Festival, Merkin Hall, New York, August 23, 2016. Maiya Papach, soloist and Karina Canellakis, conductor.
Commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble, and dedicated to Maiya Papach and the musicians of the ensemble.
Duration: 16 minutes
A recurring preoccupation in several of my recent works has been the idea of multiplicities of voices, of dual realities, and symmetrical, simultaneous roles. In Twin Spaces, Intertwined, antiphonal quintets (one brass, one woodwind) reflect common yet ultimately dissimilar materials across musical timbre and space, glued together by a pair of horns and 2 percussionists. In vis-à-vis, electronically sampled and altered instruments complement and compete with their live doppelgängers. More Marginalia divides an ensemble of ten instruments (five traditional Chinese and five Western) into mirrored instrumental resources. Within the solo, linear violin writing of Character Studies, the dramatis personae introduces a revolving door of alternating personalities, impatiently waiting their turns to interject. Assumed Roles furthers these obsessions, with the solo viola as both instigator and adversary to the ensemble, as well as collaborator and chameleon, sharing instances of the same material and blending and disappearing into an overall texture. The ensemble and soloist assume each other’s roles, and a listener’s assumptions about these roles are questioned, confirmed, and thwarted.
Anthony Cheung
Excerpt, epilogue:
Full premiere performance: