Ananda Duet
for Violin and Cello
June 3--July 7, 2009
Duration: about 11 minutes
Photo above: first performance
for Ananda-Eric Pritchard
Premiere performance
by Eric Pritchard and Fred Raimi,
Feb. 10 2010 (Memorial
Concert for Akanda), Nelson Music Room, Duke University
video
(YouTube)
PDF
Score (letter size) Parts (f&b, legal size) Cover
WAV file (CD quality) both movements
I. Overture
[5:24] MP3 recording
Moderato Akanda
II. A Catchy Little Tune
Aerobic Allegro [6:09]
MP3 recording
Ananda-Eric
Pritchard asked me to write a duet for violin and cello for performance in
Spring 2010 with Fred Raimi, in a concert given by the Mallarme Chamber
Players. The guidelines were that it should be in the tradition of such duets
to be technically challenging, and to be between 10 and 15 minutes long.
So,
I took time off the composition of the Hanuman
Chalisa portion of my Mantra Cantata
to write this little duet. After the first day of composition, in the evening I
heard that my sister Akanda had died the night before in Colorado. After
several days when I could get back to writing music, the mood of the music seemed
certain to reflect the moment.
Once
I had finished the second movement, I realized that to make a longer piece that
made dramatic sense would probably need two more movements and thus would be
longer than 15 minutes. If there is a general outcry for a longer work someday,
then I might add some more music. The Ravel and Kodaly duets, the two most
well-known violin-cello works, are both over 20 minutes.
For
printing on paper, there are legal-sized (8.5"x14") parts for each
instrument with the other part included in reduced size. For electronic
music readers, performers can use the letter-size (8.5"x11") score.
Musician Biographies
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.
Fred
Raimi, native of Detroit, teaches cello at Duke, and was a member of the Ciompi
Quartet from the early 1970’s until retirement in 2018. He won the International Cello Competition in
Portugal, and plays an Italian cello more than three centuries old.