Three Inventions (2020)

for violin and cello

Duration: 10'

Premiered: January 21, 2021 – recorded for digital release by Debut Atlantic and Orford Musique

Commissioned by Eva Aronian and Cameron Crozman with support from the Canada Council for the Arts

Programme Note:

Commissioned by Eva Aronian and Cameron Crozman for their 2021 Debut Atlantic concert tour, this work uses the musical framework of J.S. Bach’s two-part inventions as a means of exploring contrapuntal interactions between the violin and cello. In each of the three movements, I aimed to explore a different form of traditional counterpoint, recontextualized through a contemporary lens.

The first invention (subtitled ‘Canons’) cycles through a series of melodic canons featuring intricate imitative responses between the violin and cello, growing into an episode of increasingly frenzied ascending passages, and then abating to the initial calmness.

The second invention (‘Chorale’) takes on a more passive and ephemeral atmosphere than the first and presents a distilled landscape of slow-moving melodic lines. Differing from more traditional contrapuntal techniques, this movement focusses on the interactions between contrasting musical colours to create delicate timbral dissonances between the two voices.

The third invention (‘Toccata’) begins with rhythmically playful plucked chords, hocketing between the violin and cello to create a bubbling and sporadic texture. Overlapping ascending arpeggios are introduced, eventually revealing the first bowed chords of the movement that continue the energetic alterations. Halfway through, the texture shifts to virtuosic cascades of the earlier arpeggios – with sharp interruptions from hocketed chords and light ricocheting discourse – building to a frantic and unrelenting push toward the end.

This commission was generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.