Between the Lines (2020)

for violin, cello, and piano

Duration: ca. 7'30"

Commissioned by Copland House CULTIVATE

  • Performance Video Premiere
    April 20, 2021
    Music from Copland House: Pala Garcia, violin; Alexis Gerlach, cello; Peggy Kampmeier, Piano
    Recorded & Filmed in Merkin Hall
    New York, NY

    Livestreamed on iCareifyoulisten.tv

Between the Lines explores the idea of a groove that is both patiently-developing and incessant. Commissioned by CULTIVATE 2020, Copland House’s emerging composers’ institute, the piece opens with a colorful and noisy flourish, which is relentlessly repeated to form this groove. A compound melody appears next, shared among instruments and slithering in between the grid of pulses formed by the repeated flourish – hence the title. Over the course of the piece, this melody returns in a number of guises, always accompanied by the pulse, and eventually leads to a raucous climax. Ghostly echoes follow, but once again the opening flourish slowly begins to dominate the texture, bringing the piece to a boisterous close.