d'Amore – for violin and live electronics (2011-12)

- score
One of the past few years, I have become more and more focussed on finding ways that performers can extend not just their performance capabilities but also their resonant qualities. "d'Amore" expands on work I have done over the past few years where a performer or ensemble is able to start playing and resonating through their own sound spectra, as well as through past moment of a live performance. The piece is also heavily influenced by work I have done with the musician Garth Knox, who has over the past decade started to work more and more with the viola d'Amore, an older string instrument that contains a second set of strings underneath the neck of the instrument that will vibrate in sympathy with the notes that a performer plays. "d'Amore" was written with the physical properties of the violin especially in mind, as well as the spectra that the instrument (in a special tuning) will resonate with.
I would like to extend a very special thanks to Michael Jinsoo Lim for working with me on this new work and his willingness to experiment with new music. And while the literal translation of "d'Amore" in the context of this work is 'with sympathy', I could not compose without the love and support my wife Tamiko Nimura and our daughters Celia and Mira. In this case, "d'Amore" is also well suited to its second translation - "with love".