Persistent Memory

SKU: OU.9780193451551

ISBN 9780193451551. 12 x 8 inches.

For violin and piano The composer writes: 'Persistent Memory is a little six minute drama . . . although the piano begins as the more aggressive partner and triggers the violin into animation, it is in fact the piano that finally provides a note of resolution, or at least, partial resolution.'.

SKU: PR.144407380

ISBN 9781491133903. UPC: 680160683475. 9 x 12 inches.

In her powerful Foreword to the music, violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins has written: “There are great works which give voice to important moments for generations, and this is one of them.” The tragedy of Elijah McClain’s murder has moved us all, and for many musicians the image of this gentle young man playing his violin for kittens at an animal shelter has added a poignant extra layer. Zwilich was a professional violinist before turning exclusively to composing, and A LITTLE VIOLIN MUSIC is a memorial from the heart of one violinist to another.
[THESE NOTES MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLICATION; OK TO QUOTE A BIT AND GIVE AUTHOR CREDIT]We often research important pieces of music to gain some glimpse into the mind of the composer by understanding the times in which a piece was written. The times that brought this piece into being, 2020, has been a year like no other in our lifetimes.With the suffering of a once in a century pandemic raging in ever higher waves, and millions of people around the world confined to their homes with a shared attention span for the first time in generations, we watched in horror the 8 minute 46 second killing of George Floyd, a man previously unknown to us, but now unwillingly joining a long list of names of unarmed African Americans killed by police. The anguished backlash of citizens around the world, from Japan to New Zealand to Germany to the United States, of every age, color, and creed, has rallied for weeks and months on end to demand enough and that “Black Lives Matter.”And yet, in the midst of it all is an America starkly divided against itself with some defiantly pushing back, emboldened by authoritarian-style government actions against its own citizens occurring all over the country. It is against this backdrop that we ever had a chance to know of Elijah McClain. Here in quarantine I sometimes practice my scales in front of the news. And one day the mirror image looking back at me from the screen was a slight young man, warm, affable brown eyes, and also a violin under his chin. The newsreel-style camera pan so familiar now, I knew the only reason we were gazing upon his unfamous face was that he too had been killed by police nearly a year before. But the revelation of it in the broadcast hit me particularly hard.Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, who is not only one of the great composers of our time, is also a dear friend, and called me the next day, also deeply saddened by the news. It was from Ellen that I learned that Elijah used to play for the kittens at the local animal shelter so they wouldn’t be lonely. This kind, gentle soul was aggressively taken into police custody while saying, “I am an introvert. Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking... I’m going home.” He was never seen alive again.Ellen and I spoke of the sadness and the injustice of this several times. She felt a powerful calling to contribute something in a statement and the result is the piece you now hold in your hands. I am deeply honored to be the dedicatee of the piece, to have worked together with Ellen on some of the final details, and to pen this score note. As an invited alumna of the Eastman School of Music, I premiered the work for their virtual event on Diversity and Inclusion. Each time I play it, there is a persistent lump in my throat because Ellen has captured something poignant and powerful here.There are great works which give voice to important moments for generations, and this is one of them. We humbly offer this piece in memory of Elijah McClain.Foreword © 2021 by Kelly Hall-Tompkins. Used by permission.

SKU: BT.EMBZ15100

''I wrote my solo clarinet piece Persistent Dreams in 1991 before my 'Opus 1' Lightshadow-trembling, inspired by Salvador Dal 's painting La persisténcia de la memória. The musical equivalent of the infamous melting clocks is like a convolvulus made of notes moving between various overtone systems, interrupted here and there by short chromatic outbreaks. Although it recurs in various forms, in its variations it portrays the immutability and persistence of time and memory.'' (Gergely Vajda).

SKU: ET.PNO81

ISBN 9790207003256.

Lâ� ��™enfance en éclats 2001 [Childhood Shattered]
As its title suggests, Childhood Shattered is program music. A simple and graceful tune, symbolizing childhood, is abruptly interrupted by a horrific, dissonant chord. The tune returns ; but the echo of the chord, still lingering in the background, tells us that the memory of the traumatic event persists. Life has darkened. Nothing is as it was before. The initial melody wanders into keys ever stranger and more distant, ultimately arriving at a new theme, obsessive, with grating seconds and thrusting accents. This shattered childhood and its episodes of aimlessness, will it give birth to new certainties?
The piece is an exercise in contrasting detached notes with tied notes.
Commissioned by the Association Jeune musique. Required work at the International Piano Competition Freiburg - Jeune Musique, 2002.

Toccata (2004)
This piece by Caroline Charrière issues from the historical lineage of the toccata, traditionally an exercise of dexterity characterized by repeated musical motifs.
The introduction is constructed of subtly displaced upper-register chords in the right hand that alternate with two lower notes in the left hand, creating an almost meditative preamble. In the rapid section of the piece, the performer playfully exploits the keyboard's full breadth in the course of spirited dialogues between notes high and low.
Commissioned by the Association Jeune Musique. Required work in Category IV at the International Piano Competition Freiburg - Jeune musique, 2004.
Irène Minder-Jeanneret.