Elizabeth Vercoe

Viola and Piano

Composer's Note:

Elegy for Viola and Piano is a short, powerful, sometimes angry, sometimes soulful movement written in 1989. It is the fifth in a series of introspective pieces for solo instruments including music for piano, violin, cello, harp, flute, clarinet, horn and mandolin.

A review in the Journal of the American Viola Society describes the piece as "broody and attractive." The critic goes on to describe the music as follows: "The work begins with an introduction for both instruments followed by a cadenza for viola alone. The bulk of the piece involves a series of phrases which sound improvisatory, usually six to eight measures long, during which the two instruments engage in dialogue... The piano writing is quite sparse, so the viola can be soft, eloquent, and non-competitive. Now and then a recognizable theme or motive appears, but mostly this music seems to grow out of itself using figuration and rhythmic cells as unifying elements. The harmonic style is atonal, but not abrasively dissonant. Toward the end, a tonal center on A-natural emerges. This is a moody, somber interesting work with moments of real beauty, couched in a late twentieth-century idiom that is fresh."