"whispering like music down the vibrant string"
.program note
Composed in 2002 for Leah Givelber and Roger Zahab, "whispering like music down the vibrant string" gradually unfolds through repeated and varied explorations of the ways in which certain pitches and intervals respond to each other (most notably the minor second and diminished fifth). These intervals are eventually combined to form arpeggiated chords of both traditional and abstract tonalities in the work's middle section. The technical characteristics of the violin helped to determine the voice leading from one chord to the next. The piece ends by restating the elemental harmonies of the opening material, heard now through the reflective prism of the intervening music. The title is borrowed from a line in Edna St.Vincent Milay's poem, Renascence:
...and through the breathless hush that answered me, the far-off rush of herald wings came whispering like music down the vibrant string of my ascending prayer...
.listen (7.6 mb)
.history
- November 12, 2002 - Music on the Edge, Leah Givelber & Roger Zahab (premiere)
- August 17, 2004 - Roger Zahab & Leah Givelber
- November 20, 2004 - Leah Givelber & Aki Ohazama
- March 23, 2007 - CMS NE Conference, Leah Givelber & Geoff Yeh