Echoing (2014)

For violin and piano | 13'

In writing Echoing, I had a mental image of a distant cabin in snowy woods, situated on a frozen pond, enveloped in fog; in a sense, I wanted to capture glimpses of civilization, or humanity, in a distant and foreboding place. In translating this vague impression into the piece, I was very interested in combining the washy possibilities of the piano with the direct nature of the violin; I wanted the piano to create a resonant body and for the violin to grow out of it, the two instruments being united by similar whole-tone derived harmonies and cascading lines. The humanity of the cabin, or a trace of life, is represented by the fragments of melody that percolate through the piece's texture, and, at the piece's conclusion, a folk-like melody played by the violin with simple accompaniment. The rest of the piece is perhaps an echo of this theme, or vice versa.

RECORDING

Hua Zhang, violin; Alice Chuaqui Baldwin, piano.