It is a virtuosic flight (dance) of sound lines, as though analogous to ballet duo where the performers have a chance to show their mastery. It is also an "abstract music" dealing with intangible sound images each of them giving a certain type of movement and textures. I have used quasi-serial techniques and elaboration of several brief motives which became the base for all the elements of texture. The chromatic scale is extended with microtonal alterations, which are quite active at the beginning of the piece and gradually disappear in the next sections (the process of "clarification" of the 12 tone scale). The virtuosic instrumental writing is very idiomatic and includes a vast number of various string techniques such as spiccato, staccato, ricochet, harmonics, etc. Though almost all of them are known since the classical period, in this piece they follow each other very quickly and often make a cumulative timbral effect, similar to pointilistic techniques in painting.
Alexander Shchetynsky
© 2000 by Alexander Shchetynsky