Duo Flow (2007)
For violin and cello, 10 minutes
This piece was written in October 2007, New York City. First performance by Andrea Schultz and Alex Waterman, November 9, 2007, NYC. First performed at Lincoln Center in 2010 by Kuan Chung Lu and Eric Bartlett, and recorded by them on New World Records.
Score published by and available from PSNY.
Program Note:
“I based my Flow Cycle on the flow theory described by psychologist Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi, which identifies a continually moving point "in flow" of the ideal performance that maps onto an x-y chart relating skill level to task difficulty. To stay in flow, the theory goes, one must maintain a balance between the two as they both change through time. This paradigm informs efforts to create interesting performing and learning activities for professionals and children, and I sought to explore this theme as it applies to the act of listening to music. That is, where will a composition go if one conceives of it as a journey of sound exploration that engages the listener with a combination of some familiar elements and other more challenging passages?
The Cycle explores gradual shifts in color and expressivity in a constantly evolving musical thread. First with a violin solo ("in flow"), then a viola solo (Shadow Flow), the emphasis remains (sometimes simultaneously) on long, evolving gestures and the local push-pull of motifs. Duo Flow, the piece performed today, written during the dizzying year of my daughter's birth, brings the violin and cello together to capture the dance and dialogue of instrumental exchanges as each resonates within the extremes of its sonic range.
The four movements of the piece serve as both intermezzo of the larger cycle and deepening exploration of these themes, making both direct and indirect references to other pieces of the cycle (and other pieces I was working on at the time). The Flow Cycle then proceeds to Moroccan Flow (unfolding from unity) for cello, a musical interpretation of "flow" in tracing Islamic mosaics and Gnawa music. The cycle culminates with a string trio, working title:Time Memory Flow á Albert Camus, that offers a startling synthesis of cumulated experiences for the engaged listener.”
“quietly virtuosic and addictive”
The Wire UK
“Constructed as free fantasies, where moment-to-moment activity takes precedence over organizational unity, they articulate small details with energetic gestures - jolting, swooping, lilting rhythms; irregular phrase lengths and unexpected accents; string harmonics, bristling pizzicati, exaggerated bowing, and other tonal/textural effects.
But there is also an ever-present clarity of line and dramatic continuity that help the music sound subtly familiar and vigorously new at the same time."
- Fanfare Magazine
The Flow Cycle is influenced by Islamic Mosaics, Gnawa music of Morocco, Albert Camus' L'Étranger, and the Flow concept of Csíkszentmihályi. While the first work "in flow" for solo violin uses an expansive linear approach to compose 'flow' of unrelated materials, each subsequent work (Shadow Flow for viola, Moroccan Flow (unfolding from unity) for 'cello, Duo Flow for violin and 'cello, and "à cause du soleil" Flow Trio for String Trio) uses a sectional approach to create a mosaic-like experience of flow that is reflected in each of the works, which can be performed separately.