elegy (2011)
for two violas
for Peter Sulski & Mark Berger

duration: 8 minutes 30 seconds
download score (as pdf - 596 KB)
performance materials are available on request

Full recording:
Mark Berger & Peter Sulski, viola

Program Notes
elegy is a palindrome. At the start, the piece unfolds the initial gesture—an ascending interval of a perfect fourth—in three competing directions. First, the opening fourth develops into a unison rhythmic statement and then into episodes of increasingly complex counterpoint between the violas. Second, the opening fourth is built into an expanding chord progression of double stops which forms the core dramatic moment at the center of the work. Third, coloristics details are treated thematically, but independently of either the counterpoint or chordal episodes. Finally once the piece reaches its climax at its center, it runs backwards to it conclusion, undoing its own construction. For me, this metaphorically mourns a life prematurely ended.

Performance History

September 10, 2011
Peter Sulski & Mark Berger
Clark Univeristy, Worcester MA