A Due
For Violin And Violoncello
by Shulamit Ran
Chamber Music - Sheet Music

Chamber Music Violin, Violoncello

SKU: PR.114416910

For Violin And Violoncello. Composed by Shulamit Ran. Sws. Premiered in Kneisel Hall, Maine. Contemporary. Set of performance scores. With Standard notation. Composed October 13 2011. 20 pages. Duration 15 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #114-41691. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.114416910).

UPC: 680160626038. 9 x 12 inches.

Two disparate instruments begin in their own voices, slowly become aware of each other, play off of each other, play together, become close. "The analogy to a human relationship (though not one specific type of relationship) between two people that either are, or become, extremely close, fraught with all the complexity, contradictions, and degrees of emotion that an ever-evolving close relationship engenders, was indeed on my mind throughout the compositional process," says Ran. A Due spans a wide range of emotional content from fully immersed musicians.
A due for violin and cello, a single-movement piece of approximately 12 minutes, is comprised of what may be seen as a series of interconnected “terms of engagement” between its two protagonists. Starting from a state of separation and great distance, expressed by the two instruments playing entirely different music and placed in registeral positions that are wide apart, the two gradually come together, in a manner that is more akin to a series of progressive waves than a straight narrative. Spatial distribution (the “highs” and the “lows”) is, in fact, an important determining agent of these various encounters, as is the degree to which the two appear to be in opposition or in collaboration. The analogy to a human relationship (though not one specific type of relationship) between two people that either are, or become, extremely close, fraught with all the complexity, contradictions, and degrees of emotion that an ever-evolving close relationship engenders, was indeed on my mind throughout the compositional process. At its peak, A due reaches an intense climax that is pained and anguished, followed by a more tender, cathartic reconciliation. And while sections of music recur at various times (in particular a series of closely voiced chords played in rhythmic unison by the violin and cello, and a gentle, dance-like stretch of music), the position in time of these recurrences alters their emotional significance and tone.