For Two Violins and Viola
Duration: 8 minutes
I wrote this piece in an effort to write a chamber piece in a non-conventional style. The typical instrumentation of a string trio includes a cello. However, without the low range of the cello to balance the high range of the violin, a sense of ethereal floating is created among the higher strings. This piece is intended to create a sense of otherworldliness as though these movements are from a memory. The two movements are two different views on how to deal with a loss.
The first movement is harsh and aggressive. However, the momentum of the movement continues to be halted as the anger is undirected and almost carnal. There is a lingering melody above short, accented chords that is lamenting the loss. That melody creates a contrasting section full of pain and remorse. And yet, there is a beauty in the memory that is not completely lost. These two emotions struggle within the movement, moving back and forth between fiery and sad. The movement ends with the aggression driving to a final explosion of sound that hangs in the air in the same way the memory once did.
The second movement begins in a mist as if the loss has removed all sense of direction from the narrator. This lasts until an attempt is made to reason one’s way out of the confusion. The use of logic is presented in a mini-fugue, a clear sense of order among the surrounding chaos. Even the tonality becomes more rigid and defined. However, this solution does not fix the problem either and eventually fades away back into the mist to wander, lost.
