Work in Progress
November 2024 - present
The Cloud Suite
for violin solo
Composer's that influenced The Cloud Suite - for violin solo:
Kaija Saariaho
Unsuk Chin
Cassandra Miller
György Ligeti
György Kurtág
Caroline Shaw
The Cloud Suite for violin solo, came as a necessity after working, composing, recording and premiering my opera without scene, The Cloud, for baritone and string quartet. The suite, develops both "It Just Won't Be Done" and "In A Little Room" but this time focussing only in the violin music and timbral character.
In this work, the materials are similar to The Cloud, these are used to make a four movements work, that tries to resume one hour of music in only a few minutes.
While the movements are connected through harmony, sound, and an intentional sequence, they remain distinct, shaped by the different moments and contexts in which they were imagined. Together, they offer a view of shifting impressions, each shaped by its own moment of creation.
Music normally starts on a normal practice day at the piano, where I would improvise chords, melodies, and mostly modal passages that will allow me to explore sounds and to identify which materials I want on that specific moment.
This time, the chords, melodies and sounds were already there. The developing of the music came, on the one hand by taking the ideas from the opera without scene, and on the other hand by creating a different story that would make sense for the solo violin.
This work, stolen from The Cloud, an Opera without scene, is really that: a stolen material, a material that was reused, developed and transformed to make a new work that would show parts of the opera with a new twist - something that could have happened with the quartet but that it was reserved for this moment, and this moment only.
Re-utilising material is nothing new in classical-contemporary music. However, very little of my work uses the same material over and over, especially for commissioned works or projects that I would be part of. During my Doctoral studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, with Julian Philips, Richard Baker and Julian Anderson, I would use same material and re-paint it in different scores as a mere exercise. This time, due to The Cloud taking a big part of work in my life, I felt that it was unavoidable and that I had to use its material and voice for different purposes. It is not by mere coincidence that Images from a blurred window - for piano trio and The Cloud Suite - for violin solo were born.
Let’s Work Together
