Work
a loose affiliation of alleluias
a concerto for improvising violinist and three voices
About
If there are affiliations between this violin concerto and Robert Schumann’s (the former's premiere was programmed alongside the latter), perhaps the closest is with respect to the second movement of the Schumann, whose theme also appears in the Ghost Variations WoO 24, and was dictated to Schumann by a choir of angels. Perhaps this concerto’s pop song structure (intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro, fade) also pays tribute to a composer who, even when tasked with writing a violin concerto, couldn’t help but write a song.
This piece is an invitation to listen to and through a disorienting density of familiar strains.
Commissioned note
commissioned by the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus