Fred Lerdahl "Duo for Violin and Piano" Part 2/2 Elegy played by Rachel Field & Mia Elezovic

The Duo is in two contrasting parts that share underlying motivic, harmonic, and gestural patterns. The first movement, after quiet introductory chords in the piano, is generally fast and aggressive. It evolves by means of a spiral technique that I have often used, in which a simple idea expands and becomes more complex and diverse with each cycle. In this case, the process begins to reverse about three-fifths of the way through, eventually collapsing the music back to its starting point. At the same time, the material continues to proliferate while the form compresses, leading to an explosive climax. The longer, more contemplative second movement is in binary form: ABC/ABC. This movement has an elegiac, passionate, and at times dirge-like expression that arose unbidden in response to the sudden deaths of two close friends and a student within the preceding two years.

Composer Fred Lerdahl studied at Lawrence University, Princeton, and Tanglewood. He taught at UC/Berkeley, Harvard, and Michigan, and since 1991 he has been at Columbia University, where he is Fritz Reiner Professor of Music. He has received many honors for his music, including the Koussevitzky Composition Prize, awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Commissions have come from the Fromm Foundation, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Spoleto Festival, National Endowment for the Arts, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, and others. Among the organizations that have performed his works are the New York Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the American Composers Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Manhattan Sinfonietta, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, eighth blackbird, Speculum Musicae, Collage, Antares, the Juilliard Quartet, the Pro Arte Quartet, Ensemble XXI, Lontano, and the Venice Biennale. He has been in residence at the Marlboro Music Festival, IRCAM, the Wellesley Composers Conference, the American Academy in Rome, the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, the Yellow Barn Music Festival, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Lerdahl is also prominent as a music theorist. He has written two books, A Generative Theory of Tonal Music (with linguist Ray Jackendoff) and Tonal Pitch Space, both of which model musical listening from the perspective of cognitive science.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Lerdahl
• Contemporary
• New Music
• Rachel
• Field
• Mia
• Elezovic

[aesthetic1950]

In my heart, this replaces the Chaconne. Music for a very dark night. Fasten your seat belts and listen oh so carefully to the antidote for despair.

[sakurafujiko]

ミアの素晴らしい演奏を聴くことができて嬉しいです。

この動画をアップしてくれた方ありがとう！

[Contrapuntalist]

Spellbinding. The way this piece, and its fine performers, spin a web around us, drawing us in, shrouding us in the sonorous tones is positively irresistible. A fascinating work, beautifully, sensitively done. Congratulations!

[36E54]

So expressively played. Beautiful rich violin sound. Technically impressive. On my favorite list

[GreggaryPeccary]

I wholeheartedly agree with previous comments. Fantastic piece, fantastically played. Please do keep 'em coming!

[NewMusicXX]

A wonderful work, and a great performance! Very beautifully played! Also thanks for all the information from the composer about the structure of the work. Greatly appreciated!!

[Hexameron]

Fantastic upload; your performance is stirring and the music incredibly poignant