Arcangelo Red (rhapsody for solo violin)
Lynn Job
About this work:
Publisher: Buckthorn Music Press (ASCAP)
Inscription: " . . . beyond the tent - gardens of immortal starlight . . ."
Style: romantic rhapsody in a free rondo form.
Level: professional (5/6)
Requested by: Hubert Pralitz (California)
NOTES: The name is spun from no exact program, just a play on the great Baroque composer Arcangelo Corelli's first name (which means Archangel) (1653-1713) and the intense vividness the color red always imparts (in some dream interpretations portending wisdom and anointing). Finished at the start of the Feast of Tabernacles, the number 12 figures prominently within it connoting the 12 tribes of Israel, and the legacy of the Jewish composer Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) hangs in the midst of the most lyric phrases.
The poetic line below the title hints at a vision of death - a conflicted look beyond this life into a transcendental brilliance which one can only anticipate, not attain, while fixed to this earth. The quickly changing moods take the audience on a whirlwind tour through a mystical song of intense, intimate soulscape. In this story the violinist (the character looking "beyond the tent") is still "this side of paradise." The chromatics and embellishments take second place to the beautiful arches of the main, stirring tonal motif. Two lighter themes peek through for relief while the middle section, with its quiet legato double, triple, and quadruple stops is a place where the listener may ease into soft introspection.
Version: solo violin
Year composed: 2003
Duration: 00:07:00
Ensemble type: Solo instrument, non-keyboard:Violin
Instrumentation: 1 Violin
Instrumentation notes: unaccompanied.