ASCENT

I initially intended to use this material for a vocal piece, but instead the work turned into a piece for violin and piano. The piece should be rather free and rubato and sound improvisatory. As directions to the performers, I’ve used some of the phrases of the poem as poetic and dramatic clues to the mood or character of the sections of this through-composed work. Section A is marked ‘Gently, like the glimmer of moon on a wave.’ Section B is marked ‘Freely, as luminous beings appear to us.’

The violin mute and trill-like figures are used to create a shadowy mood. Section C is marked ‘Flowing, peacefully, through the green veil of a forest,’ and is characterized by a rhythmically repeating sixteenth-note pattern. Section D is an Adagio, ‘as an unbearable hunger.’ Violin double stops and soaring, longing gestures in the violin are underpinned with brief references to the Section C patterns in the piano. A brief Section E, marked ‘Gently, ‘our yearning becomes the Beloved,’ quietly ends the work with a simplified and rhythmically elongated melodic gesture in the violin, accompanied by the piano’s rising arpeggio gestures.

Inspired by poem "A Living Spirituality” by Fiona Davidson.