Elaine Agnew
   
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SLIDE

 
Year:
2005
 
Type of Work: Solo
 
Instrumentation: Violin
 
Length: 5 minutes
 
Commissioned by: Con Brio
 
Premiere: 18 February 2005, Model Niland and Art Gallery, Sligo. Catherine Leonard


 

Slide consists of three short pieces.  Similar material forms the basis of each and assures coherence despite the variety of approaches.  The constant motion of the opening movement Pluck is pizzicato throughout.  This unaccented line contrasts with an off-beat phrase near the end.

The central slower movement Slide is based on quarter-tones that form unsettled musical intervals.  The musical line glides slowly and is occasionally broken by chromatic runs and pizzicato chords. 

The final energetic Take Off! twists and hiccups around the instruments open strings.  Heavily accented notes rise up through specific intervallic patterns before a tiny coda, first heard in Pluck, brings us suddenly to the end.