The Expanded Violin

Quartertonal harmony has always had a quality of saturated sweetness to my ears, a somewhat sickly feeling of overindulgence, due to the richness and resonance of its close beating patterns. For my first piece properly engaging with quartertonal writing, the topic of sugar therefore seemed a suitable starting point. Our relationship with sugar has a complex history, from its medicinal use in the ancient world, the wealth it generated as a luxury spice, or the terrible and bloody history of its production on cane sugar plantations. Its ubiquity in modern times has increased our awareness of its effects on us: we are warned with bright red symbols of high sugar content in our food, informed of its addictive, drug-like qualities, and conscious of the profound effects that over-consumption or withdrawal of sugar can have on our mental state.

The structure of 'Rusted Sugar' loosely follows a chemical process: the stages of burning sucrose sugar until its molecules break down and separate, leaving only carbon behind. The musical relationship between the violin and electronics vacillates between coalescence and disintegration, moments of harmonic or metric unity dissolving into friction before aligning again.

Note by Anselm McDonnell

Nocturne is a 6-minute miniature created by Kaija Saariaho as a tribute upon hearing of the passing of Witold Lutosławski. However, it does not refer to the Polish master's output, but instead utilizes material from the violin concerto 'Graal théâtre', on which she was working at the time. The first performance of Nocturne was by John Storgårds on 16 February 1994 in Helsinki.

Far from being a minor work, Nocturne is one of the most compact and intimate demonstrations of Saariaho's art of letting a singular voice emerge from the noise of the world in a lively ascending dance, until darkness engulfs it again.

Note by Kaija Saariaho

I composed Lamento in February 2001 in memory of a violinist, Sakari 'Sakke' Laukola, who died very young. Sakke passed away after a long illness and his parents contacted me with a request that I write a work for two violins to be performed at his funeral. I had known Sakke too as we had played together several times and shared a desk in Turku Music Society Orchestra, 'Turun Soitannollinen Seura'.

I wrote Lamento straight away and Sakke's best friends, violinists Janne Malmivaara and Tuomas Rousi, premiered it at the funeral which was held at Resurrection Chapel in Turku on 16^th February 2001.

Lamento is based on the name Sakari Laukola, using the letters of his name to form the main motif of the work (Eb-a-a-re-la-la). The opening is hesitant but then the music starts gradually moving forward faster, growing and climbing higher and higher. Towards the end, another simple motif appears and is repeated several times; this is perhaps best described as some kind of musical farewell.

I transposed Lamento a perfect fifth lower to be played by two violas, and this was premiered by two viola players from Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Taru Lehto and Melania Wadd, who performed Lamento in Äkäslompolo on 28 February 2004.

Note by Kalevi Aho, translated by Silja Loya

At the time I wrote this piece, 25 years ago, I was very interested in music that followed a strict process of some kind. So, De La Salle (Violins) systematically works its way through all the intervals (pairs of pitches) in a nine-note scale. But, when I listen to it now, I don’t hear the machinery of its composition. Instead, it evokes the weather for me: clouds passing, rain falling sparsely, then heavily, then sparsely again, and the sun coming out.

Note by Leo Chadburn

II. Primavera

'Quattro Stagioni' is a 21st-century response to the idea behind Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons', as seen through the lens of American artist Cy Twombly's major work from the 1990s, 'Quattro Stagioni'. My 'Quattro Stagioni' consists of four concerto-type movements: each of the four violinists has their own focal movement, where the other three act as the 'ripieno' group. The character of each movement is inspired by one of Twombly's 'Quattro Stagioni' paintings. This work is a meditation on the cyclical nature of life and as such is full of colour, texture and emotion. The work was commissioned by Music Network.

Note by Ian Wilson

Quick Figure (for Marc Sabat) and This is only here. This is only now. were composed in 2010 as part of a concert of violin duets at an unusual Berlin venue: 7 hours / Haus 19, a former animal stall at Humboldt University. The venue has presented unusual concerts and visual art exhibitions for many years, and the building has an interesting, exceptionally resonant interior–making it especially appealing to me as a composer for experimentation and the presentation of new works.

Based on one of a series of line drawings, Quick Figure is a very short piece exploring a 'small area' of harmonic space––setting a handful of pure intervals and two glissandi derived from the tuning system known as 'just intonation' on two violins. The microtonal pitches in both pieces presented today are extremely difficult to play. However, the intervals they produce are relatively simple, especially in Quick Figure. In this way, the intervals themselves are both the intonational reference point and goal.

The intriguing title, This is only here. This is only now. comes from one of Virginia Woolf's novels, possibly from The Waves. Her words felt very apt for this composition. The words, just like the music, bring the reader very much to the 'here and now' in a very pointed manner. Like the title's structure, the music features a series of 18 chords with slight changes, and sometimes a glissando. The silence after each chord is a bit like a period, or a breath. The listener is very much caught up 'in the moment' while listening. The chords begin as a cluster, then broaden, and conclude with a syntonic comma non-unison.

Note by Chiyoko Szlavnics

Swept Through the Floods is a piece for amplified violin and fixed electronics. It reflects on the many environmental flooding disasters that are occurring around the world. The basic structure flows from calm to chaos and back to calm again with the violin floating along on top throughout. During the calm sections the electronics act as a support to the violin but during the more manic sections it acts as a dangerous engulfing entity that attempts to drown out the violin part. The chaos gives way to a more hopeful and serene ending as the floods subside.

Note by Judith Ring

Genesis Cradle draws on themes of origins, safety, cocooning, and beginnings. While writing this composition my wife and I were expecting our first child (who was born two days after the piece was finished!). Each night, we played music for him in the womb, including an LSO recording of Debussy’s Clair de Lune. Genesis Cradle reimagines the lullaby as heard from an ethereal distance, evoking the gentle rocking motion of Debussy’s famous work. Allusions to the opening motif of Clair de Lune surface intermittently throughout the piece, like glimpses of the moon appearing briefly from behind clouds. The piece is composed in Just Intonation, a tuning system where intervals are tuned to the natural resonance of the harmonic and subharmonic series, creating sonorities of crystalline clarity, contrasted with shimmering dissonances that vibrate with complex beating patterns. This resonance ties in nicely to Debussy’s intended sound-world for Clair de Lune, evident from his instruction to pianist Maurice Dumesnil 'to depress the two pedals before starting, so that the overtones would vibrate immediately upon contact'.

Note by Anselm McDonnell

Mira Benjamin

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Mira Benjamin is a Canadian violinist, researcher and new-music instigator. She performs new and old music with an experimental outlook, and is interested in how the human body holds and experiences knowledge. After growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Mira spent ten years in Montréal, where she was a member of the Bozzini Quartet. Since 2014 she has resided in the UK, where she performs regularly as a violinist with Apartment House and Plus Minus Ensemble, and is Lecturer in Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Larissa O'Grady

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Larissa O’Grady is an Irish violinist dedicated to performing contemporary music and exploring adventurous interpretations of the standard repertoire. Recently performing as the Music Network RESONATE Artist in Residence at the Dock Arts Centre in Leitrim and as an Artist in Residence at Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris.

Chihiro Ono

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Born in Chiba, Japan, Chihiro Ono is a London-based Japanese sound artist and violinist specialising in chamber music, experimental music and sound art. She has performed at major festivals and venues across the UK and worldwide, and regularly works with esteemed experimental and classical ensembles including Ensemble Modern, Apartment House, CHROMA, London Mozart Players, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and more.

Amalia Young

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Amalia Young is a violinist and improviser based in south-east London, specialising in the performance of contemporary classical and experimental music. She enjoys a varied career as a chamber musician and soloist and has performed in the UK, Europe, and the US, including at the Royal Opera House, Café OTO, the Aldeburgh Festival, St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Holywell Music Room, De Montfort Hall, the Ashmolean Museum.

She completed her undergraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Philippe Honoré, and her postgraduate studies at the University of Oxford and Goldsmiths University of London, studying with Mira Benjamin.