Violin and Piano

The point of departure for this piece and indeed the reasoning for its somewhat unimaginative title lay at its inherent history. The violin and piano duo has been used, starting off from classical tradition and up to the 20th century, as a staple orchestration for composers along side other naturally balanced ensembles such as the piano trio, string quartet etc. This tradition simultaneously presents a curse and blessing – the blessing in form of a well shaped orchestration that needs very little intervention on behalf of the composer in order to sound balanced; a curse in the form of an ensemble that has had so many pieces written for it that it almost becomes an all too familiar historic sound, leaving any composer at the onset of the 21st century with the uncomfortable question of whether something of value can be added to the already overflowing mass of pieces written for this duo? Subjectively, I had related this problem to tonality and specifically to a motif that underlies any tonal system – the scale. The scale to me seems to carry the emotional value of tonality and etudes at the same time, and hence I had decided that as a commentary to the collective history of this ensemble I would have the whole piece dedicated to scales – downward pouring scales, as a metaphor to the inevitable falling out of this