John Corigliano

A note from the composer: What to include in a competition piece in 2011? One could write a virtuoso étude or a lyrical essay: but the judges will have dozens of pieces that demonstrate these virtues. I thought amore interesting piece would test a performer’s imagination intelligence and musicality by offering interesting new problems to solve. Hence this unaccompanied six-minute study I call Stomp. Stomp poses its player three problems; of ear style and coördination. First the violin’s outer two strings are tuned to non-standard pitches. This mis-tuning (scordatura) deepens theinstrument’s range and replaces the usual perfect fifths between strings with grating dissonances high and low. Second the piece is modeled not on classical precedents but on American fiddle music — bluegrass andjazz. And third as in fiddle playing the violinist must periodically stomp with his or her foot along with the music. So Stomp demands a theatrical mind an unerring ear and a delight in makingmusic with the entire body. It is supposed to be fun for the audience and a workout for the soloists. I can’t wait to hear them play it.

This piece for unaccompanied cello solo transforms the gentle arches of Bach's theme into slowly soaring arpeggi of almost unending phrase lengths. It was premiered by Yo-Yo Ma in Boston in 1997 in memory of RobertGoldberg.