(1990/93) violin and bass drum, 8:00
instrumentation: violin, large bass drum
MB note: "The oldest piece included in my catalog, this piece already had some characteristic elements of my style -- the stark high and low voices, and the binary interaction of expressive human and environmental temporalities."
Ricercare for violin scordatura and bass drum was composed in 1990 and revised in 1993. It is the earliest composition I include in this catalog. In Italian the verb “Ricercare” means to “seek out” or “to find.” As a pre-baroque musical form a Ricercare was a piece combining contrapuntal techniques with a fantasia-like, through-composed feeling. Timbral diversity between the two instruments redefines the characteristic sound of each in terms of the other. Timbre, harmony, melody and rhythm are used contrapuntally to control the play of light and dark — shadows and echoes in search of something new.
Ricercare (1990/93)
PDF score