“Families is where our nation finds
hope, where wings take dream.”
George W. Bush
Ananda Dances
for String Quartet or Violin and Piano
Quartet, January 21--March 30, 2008; Violin and Piano, March 7--April 7, 2009
Duration: about 24 minutes
Photo above: first quartet performance
for Ananda-Eric Pritchard
premiere
performance of the quartet; Feb. 24, 2013 by Eric Pritchard, Mary Kay
Robinson, violins; David Marschall, viola; Virginia Hudson, cello,
at Meredith College, Raleigh NC
video (YouTube)
Score,
String Quartet PDF Quartet parts
Cover
Score, Violin and Piano PDF Violin Part Cover
The recording for violin and piano was done at Duke University by Eric Pritchard and Randall Love, October 2009.
Introduction
by
Pat Marriot, from the
WHQR
broadcast of April 28, 2014 (mp3)
Exit
by
Pat Marriott, WHQR (mp3)
I. Waltz [6:10] Qiartet: MP3 WAV (CD quality) Violin and Piano: MP3 WAV
Allegro WCPE : Slow
Waltz: Tempo I
II. Texas Two Step [5:03] Quartet:
MP3 WAV Violin and Piano: MP3
WAV
Amarillo ma non troppo
III. Slowest Waltz [6:33] Quartet: MP3 WAV Violin and Piano: MP3 WAV
Where Wings Take Dream
IV. Wild Gipsy Fling [6:26] Quartet: MP3 WAV Violin and Piano: MP3 WAV
Romayana
(Notes updated to November 23, 2023) My second composition, in 1972, was a
string quartet, performed at Phillips Academy, Andover Massachusetts, before I
had been told how formidable a task it is to add to the literature. Soon after
it was discarded. In 2003 I wrote Nocturne
and Minuet for string quartet, and I arranged it for string orchestra or
string quintet. It is intended for student
players in its technical demands. There are four piano quintets; the chamber
versions of Chamber Concerto, Variations on the
Grosse Fuge, Cubic Deviations, and Symphony No. 2: From God's Back 40. Also, the Mantra Cantata
chamber version is for piano quintet and four-part chorus.
This piece was the first time I have
written a string quartet that calls on the capability of highly skilled
musicians, which has allowed greater depth and intensity. It also was the first
music I’ve written with the possibility of dance intended from conception. As
such, the movements are restricted in rhythmic ambiguity, and there is only one
short instance of meter change within a movement in the finale. It is more
customary in my music to have more complex rhythms and meter changes that would
make choreography difficult.
The first and third movements are
waltzes, a form I find very useful and which crops up quite a few times in
other scores. The tempo marking in the first movement is a reference to a local
classical radio station that, after many years of very conservative
programming, included new music from 2010 to 2023 hidden away late on Sunday nights, including some of mine from time
to time. The second movement, Texas Two
Step, pays at least nominal tribute to the state of my birth and home for
many years. I can’t claim much authenticity in its two-stepness but at least
it’s fairly up-tempo and in 4/4, and appropriate for a formal and rather crazed
square dance. The last movement, Wild
Gypsy Fling, stems from the inspired fiddling and great musicianship of the
Roma people. I have long admired George Enescu for his violin playing and
composition, and have put a little of his flavor into this finale. Although 40
generations removed from their homeland in India, the Roma were originally
musicians in a huge Vishnu temple complex, which is harmonious with my personal
spiritual practice.
This quartet is one of a series of
pieces written for Ananda-Eric Pritchard, first violinist of the Ciompi Quartet
of Duke University. At Eric’s request, I arranged this work for violin and piano (March 7—April 7 2009), which was
recorded by him and Randall Love at Duke in October 2009 for a CD of my music.
Musician Biographies
Virginia Ewing
Hudson teaches cello and related subjects at Meredith College and has taught
Music Appreciation at St. Augustine College. She co-directs youth programs for
both the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle and is director of Meredith's Live
Oak Chamber Music Camp.
Hudson has appeared as soloist with
The Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, The Raleigh Civic Symphony and The Blue
Lake Festival Orchestra. She has performed as a chamber musician with The
Mallarme and Meredith Chamber Players and is a member of the Triangle Quartet.
Hudson has served as principal cello for The Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle,
The Opera Company of NC, The Greensboro Symphony, The Raleigh Symphony, The
Raleigh Civic Symphony, The Blue Lake Festival Orchestra and The International
Music Program. She has also performed with the NC Symphony. Hudson has studied
cello with such luminaries as Robert Marsh, Lev Aronson, Paul Olefsky and Colin
Carr and chamber music with Josef Gingold and Dan Welcher. She has been heard
on radio broadcasts, PBS, and various record labels.
Randall Love, pianist, native of
Colorado, recently retired from teaching piano and fortepiano at Duke. He has performed at the Piccolo
Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the
Schubert Club in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has performed Bill Robinson's music on several occasions.
David Marschall was a member of the North Carolina Symphony beginning in 1987.
He was appointed Associate Principal Viola in 2007. Since 1990, he spent his summers playing
in the orchestra of the Santa Fe Opera. David was a member of the chamber
ensemble Quercus, and he was a member of New Music Raleigh, an ensemble
dedicated to the music of living composers. He performed regularly in the Peace
College Chamber Music Series and with the Mallarme Chamber Players. He
performed on Bill Robinson’s 2012 concert at Duke.
David has also served as Principal Viola
for the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and the Columbus Pro Musica Chamber
Orchestra. He was a member of the New Orleans Symphony, the Innsbruck (Austria)
Symphony, the Des Moines Metro Opera, and the Colorado Philharmonic.
A native of Columbus, Ohio, David studied
first at Ohio State, and he received his Master's degree from the Peabody
Conservatory, where he studied with Karen Tuttle. His viola was made in 2009 by
Grubaugh and Seifert of California. David's wife, Amy, teaches German and
English at Raleigh Charter High School, and they have two sons, Philip and
Owen.
Eric Pritchard, violinist, has been a member of Ciompi
Quartet since 1995 and was formerly the first violinist of the Alexander and
Oxford Quartets. Mr. Pritchard has taught at Miami University, San Francisco
State University, City University of New York and the North Carolina School of
the Arts. He was winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs Award in
Violin as well as the first-prize winner at the Portsmouth (England)
International String Quartet Competition and the Coleman and Fischoff national
chamber music competitions. He has performed widely as a recitalist and as
soloist with the Boston Pops and orchestras in Europe and South America. His
major teachers were Eric Rosenblith, Josef Gingold, Ivan Galamian and Isadore
Tinkleman and he holds degrees from Indiana University and the Juilliard
School. He has performed many works by Bill Robinson since 2006.
Mary Kay Robinson, violinist,
is a 1968 graduate of the Juilliard School, where she studied with Dorothy
DeLay and Ivan Galamian. She studied chamber music with Felix Galimir, Donald
Weilerstein, Josef Gingold and members of the Guarneri String Quartet. She
furthered her education with studies with
Glenn Dicterow, Gregory Fulkerson and Gerald Beal. Her first job after graduation was as
violin instructor at the University of Tennessee, in her hometown of Knoxville,
where she filled in for her former teacher, William Starr, who was on
sabbatical in Japan. She was a member of the University of Tennessee String
Quartet and later held a similar position in the University of Maryland String
Quartet.
She has toured with Solisti New York and spent
many summers playing with the OK Mozart Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival,
and Bellingham Festival of Music. In 2008 she taught at Duke University as well
as maintaining a private studio. Also that year, she performed Bill Robinson’s Sonata for Solo Violin #4 at Brevard,
NC. She performed on Bill Robinson’s 2012 concert at Duke. Bill has composed
two pieces for her to play with her husband oboist Joseph Robinson.