Score
Transcendental Études : for solo violin / James Cuddeford.
Library shelf no. 787.2/CUD 3 [Available for loan]
Work Overview
Though my series of Transcendental Études for solo violin were composed over a four-year period, they were conceived as a set of closely related works. Each Étude contains a different number of rows of harmonic series; the primary row is on a low A fundamental, and secondary rows are based upon the higher overtones spiralling above this. Étude 1 is the most simple as it comprises only the one primary row of A, whilst Étude 4 is the most complex with eight rows (harmonics 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 above A function as fundamentals).
The transcendental aspect of the title refers both to the technical difficulties of the violin writing (transcending the physical) and the spiritual striving for transcendence. Each Étude possesses its own characteristic figuration and mode of playing, as in the études of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Triple Homage pays my respects to three unlikely companions: Antonio Bazzini, Galina Ustvolskaya and a street musician who plays nightly on a busy pedestrian bridge in Hong Kong.
In a folkstyle is inspired by the physicality and dexterity required by the performer to execute the wide intervals found in Xenakis' Mikka and Paganini's Caprice No. 2.
The Impossible Question refers to the title of a collection of talks and exchanges given by Jiddu Krishnamurti. This Étude explores the limits of rational thought: "questions"-posed in double stops in four separate paragraphs-all evaporate into the high treble register and silence.
Sedna is an evocation of the highly individual and eccentric orbit of the minor outer planet of the same name. The arpeggiandos are inspired by its revolutions and the harmonic rows are used in a carefully paced correspondence to its extreme elliptical orbit (Sedna possesses an extraordinary difference between its perihelion and aphelion positions).
Praise to God is heavily and, more than in any other work of mine, openly indebted in its conception to a pre-existing model - in this case, Stockhausen's final series of Klang compositions. It was born out of a (unfulfilled) desire that he had written one of the works from this series for solo violin.
Work Details
Year: 2017
Instrumentation: Violin.
Duration: 30 min.
Difficulty: Advanced
Contents note: No. 1: Triple Homage -- No. 2: In a folkstyle -- No. 3: The impossible question -- No. 4: Sedna -- No. 5: Praise to God.
First performance: by James Cuddeford — 13 Jan 15. Hong Kong Fringe Club Hall, Hong Kong
Composed 2013-2017.
Performances of this work
21 Nov 17: featuring James Cuddeford.
13 Jan 15: Hong Kong Fringe Club Hall, Hong Kong. Featuring James Cuddeford.
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