Elliott Miles McKinley

Violin Solo

Composer's Note:

Betwixt Bach began as an idea over dinner at the Alba Music Festival in Alba, Italy in May 2019 with my friend, violinist and conductor Erik Rohde. At that time, Erik was working on an ambitious project to present the entire set of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin in 2020 as part of the 300th anniversary of their composition. At that dinner he asked me if I'd be willing to write some original connecting pieces as a kind of "then and now" concept with the idea to eventually record and release the entire collection together with the Bach. Naturally, I was both excited and scared of this idea; the ultimate result would end up putting myself and my music squarely against Bach which, for many composers, is quite a daunting thought. However, I eagerly began to think about this work and started to sketch some preliminary ideas in early 2020 with the goal of finishing the work in mid-summer 202. Then we all encountered the turmoil of the global COVID pandemic and, as with many things, all of the plans for concerts and other events surrounding this particular project fell apart. Despite this, I decided to keep working on the piece, completing much of the music during the summer of 2020 and, after a long hiatus, returning to complete the work in the late spring of 2021.
As far as the music itself, while it is meant to be paired alongside the Bach, the music makes no direct references or quotes of any of the Sonatas or Partitas. My intention was to capture the flavor of Bach through the music lensed through the musical tapestry of the past 300 years since Bach's time.