Contrasts in Time, for Solo Violin


Instrumentation: Video-art by Stuart Diamond

Year: 2016

Duration: 8 minutes

Sample PDF available for download here PDF

Karen Bentley Pollick, violin.

Recorded at MAMA Studios, Vilnius, Lithuania, September 2016

Sound Engineer: ArÅ«nas Zujus

Contrasts in Time
From a Live Performance - Klaipeda Concert Hall, Lithuania (September 2016)
Karen Bentley Pollick - Solo Violin
Ayal Adler - Music
Stuart Diamond - Video

Contrasts in Time comprises one large movement, divided into smaller sections and played without a pause. Throughout the course of the piece, the main materials are subjected to constant transformations within harmony, rhythm, dynamics, tempi, tone- colors, and others. The overall form of the piece is organically created as result of these ever-changing transfigurations.

Throughout the work, various contrasts are displayed, such as extremes of register; contrasts between opposing dynamics, tempi and mood, etc. A contrast between intense, forward-moving sections and subtle, somewhat abstract, events helps shape the overall formal structure of the work. In order to enhance the changing colors, shades and textures within the work, various coloristic techniques are engaged, such as microtonal vibrati and trills; playing on the bridge of the violin, et alia. These techniques create a rich listening experience of shifting colors and shades, at times merging and melting into one another.

The work is dedicated to Karen Bentley Pollick, with friendship and gratitude.

The video by Stuart Diamond correlates the sonic experiences using visual themes (interlocking lattice-works, questing and connecting lines, seeking and finding circles/hoops) not by analogy or any kind of equivalence, but simply parallel play that allows the music its own unimpeded aural dance.