PARTITIONS GRATUITES : VIOLON ET PIANO
- Disappear

SKU: HL.233289

12.0x9.25x0.43 inches.

Score and separate parts with spiral-bound keyboard/organ part. Number 5, 1950 was Mark Rothko's last painting before the breakthrough into his mature format. In it the luminous color fields of a classic Rothko are inscribed across the middle with three delicate lines. Describing this painting and its pivotal position in Rothko's work, Brian O'Doherty observes: 'After this, the lines disappear completely.' In recent years gesture and figuration have disappeared from my music. What used to be background has emerged to become a musical world composed entirely of floating color fields. In this new world I've changed media, moving from the orchestra to smaller combinations of acoustical instruments and electronically-processed sounds. I still think in orchestral terms, but this hybrid medium allows me to create orchestral textures for more practical and readily available ensembles. Initially I imagined this as a kind of monolithic music -an entire piece as one rich and complex sound. Then I came to hear it as homophonic or heterophonic. And now - in this musical world that I thought was completely free of lines - I've come to hear a polyphony of harmonic clouds. Maybe the lines never disappear completely. Maybe Christian Wolff was right when he quipped: 'No matter what we do, sooner or later it all sounds melodic.' - John Luther Adams.

SKU: PR.114414200

ISBN 9781491111284. UPC: 680160594719. 9x12 inches.

Composed for violinist Baird Dodge, James Matheson's SPIN is a three-movement study in various meanings of the word spin. I. Gyre has the character of a whimsically spinning object in a sort of arena. II. Web is essentially a slow movement. It explores a nearly static, sinewy texture comprised of slowly undulating chords in which snippets of melody emerge from the notes held while the chords disappear. Similar to the first movement, III. Spiral explores a kinetic notion of spinning, this time in the form of rapidly rising scales.
SPIN was composed in early 1998. Each of the work’s three movements assumes the task of exploring a different meaning of the title.The first movement, Gyre (as in gyroscope), has the character of a whimsically spinning object in a sort of arena – spinning and bouncing off the walls (like a spinning penny, which bounces off of an object unpredictably and with somewhat explosive force). The primary musical idea consists of high harmonics in the violins set against a rocking pulse in the lower strings. This basic texture is explored in various guises as the movement progresses.Web is essentially a slow movement. It explores a nearly static, sinewy texture comprised of slowly undulating chords. Snippets of melody emerge from the notes held while the chords disappear. The music intensifies, leading to an expected climax (or anti-climax) of pizzicatos, before returning to the opening material and winding gently to a close.Like Gyre, the third movement, Spiral, explores a kinetic notion of spinning, this time in the form of rapidly rising scales. The formal idea of this movement, however, has the character of a spiral, with its tendency toward implosion.SPIN was written for violinist Baird Dodge.