Duologue 7
Allen Brings
About this work:
Completed in February 2001, Duologue 7 is the latest of the short pieces for two instruments that I began to compose in 1998. Their instrumentation has varied considerably, but only two have included the piano. Not since my Four Pieces, written in 1963 and described by one reviewer "as if it might have been written by Arnold Schoenberg on an amphetamine high," had I considered writing for violin and piano again. As any violinist will tell any pianist, it is a difficult combination of instruments to write for, and, since Beethoven, no major composer has written more than a handful of works for it.
It is unlikely that any listener will react to Duologue 7 as the reviewer did to Four Pieces, but clearly evident in Duologue 7 is a continuing contest between classical restraint and emotional release, a contest that I have observed in much, if not all, of my music. In this contest, however, neither contender ever prevails even though one must inevitably have the last word. One way of making sense of this music is to follow the course that the contest takes, hearing, for example, how classical retraint is sometimes gradually, not suddenly, overcome by emotional release. Such evidence may suggest that the form of Duologue 7 has relied heavily on my own insights into states of the human mind, my own certainly, but also those of others who listen to this music.
Duologue 7 was first performed by violinist Daniel Phillips and pianist Morey Ritt at Queens College on April 17, 2002.
Score and part available from Mira Music Associates. Contact: miramusic@aol.com
Recorded on Capstone Records CPS-8753
Version: violin & piano
Year composed: 2001
Duration: 00:06:30
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Other Combinations, 2-5 players
Instrumentation: 1 Piano, 1 Violin