inside cover cover

From the com

poser’s journal...

Dec 10

, 2010

I studied B

eethoven’s cello sonata today. He keeps both parts in com

plementary

registers and rhythms so everything is balanced yet dram

atic. I need to do that. Fran

ck keeps the cello in the highest positions in his sonata. The piano part doesn’t have a lot

of notes. T

his makes for a m

odern yet ethereal effect. I’m struck by the elasticity of his bowing. I

need to bow like that.

Brahm

s gives the cello air by keeping the piano writing simple.

Brahm

s is all melody all the tim

e. D

ec 29 M

y sonata has to be singable by the human voice from

beginning to end. It has to be complex

enough not to pale after two or three listenings--yet not so com

plicated nobody wants to play it. I n

eed to write fewer but better notes. Most of all, I need a good them

e--actually I need two. D

ec 31 M

ichelangelo wrote, “B

orne in a fragile bark upon a storm

y sea, I complete the course of m

y life.” D

elacroix, “What m

oves men of genius, or rather, what inspires their work, is not new ideas,

but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.”Jan

4, 2011

I began work on the cello sonata, 26 measures. I went with the Fran

ck idea.Jan

5 Slow day. I did another 26 m

easures but this time, instead of sounding like Franck, it sounds

like Rachm

aninov--so at least I’m progressing.

Jan 6

I fin

ished the first section up to m

easure 75 and sketched the next, a funeral march. N

ow I kn

ow what the piece is about. It’s about roads not taken, but not in a nostalgic way.Jan

7 I worked through to m

easure 100

. The funeral m

arch ended up as some sort of peasant dance.

It was fun writing the piano part in the lowest tessitura but I’m not sure it will balance the cello

in rehearsal. I hope B

en can manage the C

string as high as I ask. I don’t want to fuss with it. I played B

uxtehude and Frescobaldi in church.Jan

8 I wrote 16 m

easures, finishing the m

ovement, ending in a refrain in C

major, either glorious

or you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-this-is-absolute-schlock. Jan

11 I wrote a cha-cha in a m

inor key. I woke up with the melody in m

y head and worked on it for two days.Jan

13 I wrote a scherzo to place between the fi

rst part which ends in a refrain and the work I did previously, the cha-cha. T

he scherzo is the first part speeded up with different accom

paniment,

all min

or.Jan

15 I fi

nished the M

ournful Bells section. The piano is all juxtaposed m

inor, augm

ented and di-m

inished chords--lots of pedal. T

here’s a big melody in the cello all m

inor, big bowing. Pretty straightforward.Jan

18 I spen

t the day writing a few pages but was so unfocused I decided to do the whole thing over. T

he first 5 variations of the funeral m

arch are finally right.

Jan 19

I wrote a variation, tossed it, rewrote it, tossed that. Then I went to sleep, woke up, and fi

nally got the variation right. T

hen I wrote another variation. I played through the Art of Fugue.Jan

20 I fi

nished the twelve variations of part one (not 13 variations--life’s depressing enough). I

have to bow the cello part and pedal the piano part. It turned out Beethoven-esque because the

development was achieved by classical m

eans. I’ve already written M

elancholy Bells which attaches onto the variations. T

he further variations are to be in b minor, a deathly key. T

he second series of variations n

eeds to be much m

ore stark, like Copland alm

ost or Bach.

Variation form is diffi

cult. It calls for endless invention. New ideas don’t com

e easy to me so

norm

ally when I get one idea I hold on to it and develop it as best I can. But with variation form

everything has to be new. Too often I’ve written a variation then torn

it up because I needed a n

ew idea. Then I had to wait until som

ething came--though once I get an idea, the execution is

easy. W

inter--so little light. Is the work dark because the heart is dark or does the dark outside

darken one’s inside?

Jan 21

I fin

ished all 8 variations. I knew exactly what I wanted I just had to do it. It’s more to the

point that the fi

rst 12 variations, very strong. Now I can write the G

lorious Bells--a great relief after all that m

inor. I’ve given B

en a technical part, full of half positions and all the way to seventh position and above on the A

string. Will anyone be able to play these high chrom

atics in tune? I didn’t realize until today how m

uch I’ve been influenced by the spectral com

posers, particu-larly G

risey. I already know the ending. It’s the refrain again in C

but ending with a big gliss on both in-strum

ents, then an F# major chord.

Jan 31

I fin

ished the Tarantella for the finale. T

he trick was not to put in too much so it can m

ove. T

hen I just added the end. N

ow I have to check accidentals, bowing, dynamic and expression

marks. T

his will take days of close work.Feb 2 Fin

ished and scanned the piece.***********************************

May 18

I’m thinking of writing a sonata for clarinet, the whole piece in the clarion register. It’s dif-

ficult writing a good tune within an octave. Singing in the Rain seem

s to have a huge range because of all the octave leaps, but the range of the whole song is just an octave. T

hat’s good technique.Jun

e 30 U

p to today I’ve been sketching a sonatina for clarinet and piano on little bits of paper during m

y breaks from rehearsing with B

en. It’s mainly M

ozartian things I can’t get out of my head.

July 1 I fi

nished a fi

rst movem

ent. The second m

ovement I wrote at Juilliard waiting for a rehearsal.

I sketched out the melody on a piece of scrap and wrote in the piano chords on another scrap-

-real simple. T

he theme for the third m

ovement was som

ething that just came to m

e in a dream

(literally). I didn’t know what to do with it so I just stuck it in at the end and it worked. I added a M

inuet to the m

ix as a Haydn hom

age.July 7 Fin

ished the clarinet sonata. The fi

rst and second movem

ent wrote themselves. T

he third was a pain

because of all the counterpoint, but it’s the richest. It should be a fun piece.

— A

ndrew Violette

Be

nja

min e

lto

n Ca

pps’ recently released recording of A

ndrew Violette´s Songs and D

ances (innova 780) won raves

from the H

olland Tim

es which hailed Benjam

in as a “young

cello phenomenon [with] dazzling technique and a fearsom

e-ly m

eaty tone.” His playing has been praised as “m

ost appeal-ing” by the N

ew York Tim

es and “rich…and hum

an” by the N

ew York Sun. He has appeared as soloist and principal cel-

list with the Philharmonic O

rchestra of the Am

ericas, whose recent C

D on Sony went gold. H

is perfor-m

ance of the Schumann C

ello Concerto at

the 2010

Music Festival of the A

mericas in

Vermont was hailed as “virtuosic and im

pas-sioned” (B

arre Montpelier T

imes). Perfor-

mance highlights in include recital tours, by

invitation, to the Peoples´ Republic of C

hina, with perform

ances in Xiam

in, Fouzhou and G

ulangyu, and recital appearances in New

York, Athens, G

reece and Burgos, Spain. A

n avid cham

ber musician, he has participated

in the Bowdoin, Schlern Int´l (Italy), B

urgos Int´l (Spain) and Sum

mit Sum

mer Festi-

vals, the Perlman M

usic Program, and the C

hamberFest and

FOC

US! Festivals in L

incoln Center. M

r. Capps has m

ade num

erous appearances on Manhattan´s Tactus Series, and

has performed on T

rinity Church´s M

usic at One series, and

at Bargem

usic, and founded the Capanglia T

rio, the Sonar Players, and the N

ew York Cham

ber Collective.

First Prize winner of the 200

9 Freiburg International C

larinet Com

petition in Germ

any, clarinetist mo

ra

n Ka

tz

performs extensively as a soloist with the Israel Philharm

onic O

rchestra, the China Philharm

onic Orchestra, the SW

R

sinfonieorchester Baden-B

aden and Freiburg, the Collegium

M

usicum B

asel, the Albany Sym

phony, the Midland-O

dessa Sym

phony and Chorale, the H

aifa Symphony O

rchestra, the Israel Sinfonietta and the Tel A

viv Soloists Ensem

-ble. She has collaborated with the A

riel, Carm

el, C

ontemporary, Tesla, B

enaim and O

ld City String

Quartets, as well as with artists such as M

itsuko U

chida, Richard G

oode, Vera Beths and A

rnold Steinhardt. A

ctive in the contemporary m

usic scene, M

s. Katz has soloed with the N

ew Juilliard Ensem

-ble, as part of the FO

CU

S! 200

5 and 200

6 Festi-vals. In sum

mer 20

07, she appeared on the M

oMA

Sum

mergarden Series in solo recital. She often collaborates

with the internationally acclaimed new m

usic ensemble

“Continuum

” and with the jazz ensemble of pianist U

ri C

aine. She is also a founding mem

ber of “Shuffle C

oncert”, a newly form

ed audience-interactive ensemble. M

s. Katz can

be heard on tracks of three C

Ds: she perform

s Richard W

il-son’s T

imeshare with cellist Sophie Shao for A

lbany Records’

“Brash A

ttacks” (all Richard W

ilson CD

), music by A

ndy L

aster for the Tzadik label and m

usic by Roberto Sierra and

Ursula M

amlok for the N

axos label (both released in 2011).

Also by a

nd

re

w V

iol

et

te:

Ult

raV

iol

et

te innova 757 (E

lizabeth Farnum, soprano;

Raym

ond Martin, baritone; Sherry Z

annoth, soprano; M

aggie Lauer, fl

ute; Kaitilin M

ahoney, horn, John Rojak,

bass trombone; A

ndrew Violette, piano; Janice W

eber, piano; E

nsemble Pi)

so

na

ta fo

r Un

aC

Co

mpa

nie

d Vio

lin

innova 711:2 CD

s (Robert U

chida, violin)t

he d

ea

th

of t

he h

ire

d ma

n innova 60

8 (Sherry Zannoth, soprano;

Brad C

resswell, tenor; Andrew V

iolette, piano)r

aVe innova 674 (G

regor Kitzis, electric violin;

Curtis M

acomber, violin; A

ndrew Violette,

keyboards)s

on

gs a

nd d

an

Ce

s innova 780 (B

en Capps, cello)

pia

no

so

na

ta

s 1 & 7

innova 587:3 CD

s (Andrew V

iolette, piano)p

ian

o s

on

at

as 2-6 innova 641:3 C

Ds (A

ndrew V

iolette, piano)s

on

at

a for t

he C

re

at

ion o

f th

e wo

rl

d C

omposers C

oncordance 6 (Andrew V

iolette, organ)

www.andrewviolette.com

innova is supported by an endowment from

the McK

night Foundation.Philip B

lackburn, director, design • Chris C

ampbell, operations m

anagerSteve M

cPherson, publicist www.innova.mu