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Fred Lerdahl’s Duo for Violin and Piano Debuts on West Coast

Nov. 01, 2011

Fred Lerdahl’s Duo for Violin and Piano Debuts on West Coast

The Empyrean Ensemble performs the West Coast premiere of Fred Lerdahl’s Duo for violin and piano at the University of California-Davis campus on November 19. A 20-minute exploration of underlying motivic and harmonic themes in two contrasting movements that cover a vast emotive landscape, Duo was commissioned by the McKim Fund and was premiered by Rolf Schulte with James Winn at the Library of Congress in 2005. Fred Lerdahl writes:

The first movement, after quiet introductory piano chords, is fast and aggressive. Its form employs a spiral technique in which an idea expands and becomes more complex with each cycle. The process reverses about three-fifths of the way through, collapsing the music back to its starting point. At the same time, the material continues to proliferate while the form compresses, creating an explosive climax. The longer, more contemplative second movement is in binary form: ABC/A’B’C’. This movement has an elegiac, passionate, and at times dirge-like expression.

Listen to an excerpt by visiting Fred Lerdahl's website www.fredlerdahl.com.

Learn more on Lerdahl's music in the composer’s own words by watching his Miller Theatre Composer-Portrait vignette here.

Fred Lerdahl
Duo (2005)
for violin and piano
19’

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