Mirror Images
Mirror Images (“Spiegelbilder”) for viola, cello and piano, 2013
15:00′
Edition Kunzelmann, GM-1892
Commissioned by Jürg Dähler from the Swiss Chamber Soloists with the financial support of the Cultural Departement of the City of Zurich.
Premiere: May 14, 2013, Church St. Peter, Zurich (Jürg Dähler, Daniel Haefliger, Gilles Vonsattel).
The title “Mirror Images” refers to two different kinds of reflection that distinguish this piece.
On the one hand, there are passages where two voices mirror each other so directly that their pitch patterns run opposite to each other: upward movement in one voice is linked to downward movement in the other and vice versa. This kind of writing is found between the two string instruments and between the two hands of the piano part.
On the other hand, there are moments where music by Robert Schumann (1810-1856) insinuates itself into mine, as though reflected by a time-mirror. Motives from the last three movements of the “Märchenbilder” op. 113 for piano and viola (a wonderful piece!) form reference points for short sections in which my musical language is modulated, so to speak, by elements taken from Schumann’s music. This process is not always equally easy to follow aurally; at one moment the mirror’s surface is clear, and then it becomes fogged over by the mist of time …