I. Incantation
II. Encounter
Duration: 9'30"
Instrumentation: Violin and Vibraphone
Notes:
Cave of the Ancients is a two-movement piece for violin and vibraphone that explores the many similar timbres and techniques available to both instruments in an eerie, mystical setting. The title is an image that was strongly painted in my mind upon completion of the piece—a cave hidden in the wilderness where powerful people once dwelt and magic still lives.
The first movement, Incantation, begins with both the vibraphone and the violin bowing a soft C#. From this sound the violin temporarily emerges with a Siren-like melody, only to sink back into the unison C#. The vibraphone then does likewise and the two instruments trade holding the C# pedal while the other sings over it. After five of these statements, the note D starts to infiltrate both musicians' parts, eventually taking over as an aggressive pedal in the violin. Vibraphone and violin again exchange expressive melodic lines, this time with more unrest and tension. Following a final ringing D in both instruments, C# gradually returns, the violin has a closing melodic figure, and the instruments end as the piece began—playing a single bowed C#. At the macro level, Incantation is about an extended journey from C# to D and back.
The second movement, Encounter, is a frantic race engaging violin and vibraphone both as soloists and as a duo. The harmonies and melodies in this movement come from a 60 note "scale" formed by taking the first five notes of the octatonic scale and repeating those notes in ascending perfect fifths. This scale—heard earlier in the descending violin runs of Incantation—was chosen because it is extremely idiomatic to the violin due to the scale's exact repetition at the perfect fifth. Along with a development of the scalar and motivic content of the first movement, Encounter also develops the use of extended techniques almost to the point of absurdity.
Listen to excerpts:
I. Incantation
II. Encounter
View sample pages:
I. Incantation: Page 1, Page 5
II. Encounter: Page 7, Page 11, Page 17