Break Free
Two violins and electronics | 2015 | 14'
Commissioned by Dartmouth College
Past Performances:
Isaac Allen and Hua Zhang, violin duo. Masters Recital. Auer Hall, Indiana University, Nov. 3, 2015.
Premiered by String Noise (Pauline Kim Harris and Conrad Harris), violin duo. Festival of Contemporary American Music. Faulkner Recital Hall, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 8, 2015.
Break Free has two poles: a fantasia that easily goes off into uncharted territory, and a cadence that stays closer to home. The performers struggle to balance the piece's capricious nature with its fixed structure, a mirror-form. This is the question the voice in the electronics asks (text below): is identity only what we are told we are, or do our dreams and desires ultimately define us?
Break free
Go backwards again
Be more the self I want to see
Be still
Still be
The self I want to see
Be more backwards again
Break free
The electronics feature the poem above read by Alice Baldwin, now the composer’s wife.
