Violin Sonata No. 1 (2008)

for vio­lin and piano
about 8”30

pre­miere May 11, 2008 at the Blessed Sacra­ment Church
152 West 72 Street
New York City

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I was inter­ested in con­trasts between con­structed bina­ries while writ­ing this piece. In other words, in a world that sees black and white, us and them, up and down, etc, how can a com­poser play with expec­ta­tions of nor­malcy? My par­tic­u­lar con­cern was with the male/female dichotomy. What sounds mas­cu­line? What sounds feminine?

The first move­ment con­trasts two themes that are nom­i­nally mas­cu­line and fem­i­nine, but which is which? The sec­ond move­ment height­ens the inter­change that these two char­ac­ter­is­tics pos­sess, end­ing trag­i­cally. In the third move­ment some­thing of a heroic theme emerges against a flow­ing per­petuum mobile motif.

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