A LIKENESS (2021-22)

for 7-string bass viola da gamba and piano, ca. 9 minutes

Composed for Liam Byrne and first recorded by Liam Byrne and Conrad Winslow

Program Note

"The term “idiomatic” always assumes an idiom, which in instrumental music nearly always refers to the scales, articulation, and phrasing needed to fluently perform the hits of the canon. In this unusual duet for bass viola da gamba and modern piano, however, Liam Byrne and I first had to determine the idiom of the situation. So A Likeness developed slowly through workshops in 2021, which allowed us the time to develop a gestural and harmonic rhetoric for our very different instruments. I defined harmonic spaces for us to lean into mutual resonances, and a lexicon of harmonic shadows, echoes and imitative gestures that enabled our instruments to speak naturally, idiomatically, to one another. Or one might think of two painters attempting with dissimilar brushes to capture the essence of a subject, each acquiring the ability to capture the likeness of someone through minimal gesture. The introspective icy viol and the massive industrial piano face each other to catch reflected glimpses of a ghost."