The Avant-Garde Violin

* sorry, no cover or artwork available

various artists compilation - The Avant-Garde Violin

performed by Gabriel Banci - violin on all pieces; Zita Carno - piano on "Duo for Violin and Piano"; Ilhan Mimaroglu - electronics on "Music Plus One for Violin Solo and Electromagnetic Tape"

released in 1970

Duo for Violin and Piano: This work was written in 1963. It was one of a group of bravura works for solo strings and keyboard I embarked on at that time. All these works (the others are for solo viola and solo cello) employed proportional notation - that is, a method of writing which depends on the distance between the notes on the page to indicate their duration, instead of the traditional form of metrical division. This method of notation enables these works to have a fluidity of rhythm impossible in the conventional system of notation. (William Sydeman)

Music Plus One for Violin Solo and Electromagnetic Tape: A verbal description of the piece would be superfluous; everything happens here on musical grounds, just like in any other piece of music. From a programmatic standpoint too there is nothing to say, for there are no hidden meanings, no extra-musical connotations.
The title, "Music Plus One", may, however, need clarification. By "Music" only the tape part is meant, that is, that which has already been conceived and realized in terms of sound, to which the indefinite and abstract "One" is added. It is represented by what is written down on paper, which, although commonly referred to as "music", is not music unless translated into sound by a violinist. It should follow that the title does not apply to the present recorded realization, for the "One" too became music here, but to all other possible realizations, which should not greatly differ from the one heard on this recording because the notation I used is thoroughly conventional.
The style of writing too is "conventional", at least in the sense that it reflects my response to a certain brand of conventional violin-writing. Along with my recently developed inclination to use the past as the fantasy of the present, the fact that the piece was intended for a virtuoso player of Gabriel Banat's stature also determined the character of the violin part.
"Music Plus One" was written in the winter months of 1970, and the tape part was realized in the studios of Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York City. (Ilhan Mimaroglu)

Sonata for Violin Solo: [Robert Hall] Lewis's "Sonata" was composed on request from Gabriel Banat for a recital of twentieth-century violin music given at Lincoln Center in June, 1968. The composer writes as follows concerning the work:
"The creation of diverse musical situations and the development of interesting, expressive material were foremost in my thinking during the period when I composed the 'Sonata'. Thus strong, dramatic statements are sometimes found in juxtaposition to short phrases of quiet, more restrained mood; strummed four-note chords later give rise to passages of driving staccato character. In the 'Sonata', as in my other recent works, the basic method is that of elaborating a few musical gestures, which, gradually increase in scope and intensity.
"Originally, the 'Sonata da Chiesa' was an influence in structuring my composition, although as the work progressed, it assumed more flexible characteristics than those of the Baroque prototype. Four contrasting sections form the basis of the 'Sonata', the first of which is slow, in the manner of a 'Fantasia'. A second area, containing more rapid motion, later develops into a frentic 'Scherzando', involving multiple stopping, left hand pizzicato and saltando bowing. Expansive lyricism is primary in the third section, wherein a semi-contrapuntal texture in the upper register is achieved. A brief cadenza leads into the final 'Allegro Moderato', with its sharply profiled theme. Following some development, materials from previous sections are either alluded to or re-stated in literal form. The 'Sonata' concludes 'Meno Mosso' with the quiet dissolution of a six-note motive."

Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. William Sydeman - Duo for Violin and Piano {22:27}

Side 2

1. Ilhan Mimaroglu - Music Plus One for Violin Solo and Electromagnetic Tape {10:31}

2. Robert Hall Lewis - Sonata for Violin Solo {11:49}

(1) (2)