Composer's Notes :
1) Dance
2) Song
3) Song and Dance
The first movement begins with a short, punchy refrain motive, which kicks of a fast, jerky principal theme on solo violin. This is followed fairly swiftly by the other main idea – a high, floating singing line, with murmuring accompaniment. These three main elements form the main thrust of development thereafter. However, the music takes a significant detour into an energetic Scottish reel, before the natural development is resumed and concluded.
The second movement begins with a simple, expressive melody on oboe, which is then taken up by the strings as the solo violin moves into a highly embellished counter-material. This becomes the main characteristic of the soloist’s activity in this central movement. The other main accompaniment idea is a series of simple chords, all of different lengths, fitted in to a pliable dyadic rhythm. As the two themes are varied in a series of episodes, the music again takes an unexpected shift – where the solo part is marked semplice, child-like, folksy, dancing. Based on a hazy, remembered amalgam of old Irish tunes, this section is a memory of childhood. These main elements are developed and subsequently juxtaposed, but it is this simple melody that has the last word, in a virtuosic passage for the soloist.The third movement is a combination of the two concepts in the earlier movements; song, and dance. The music has the physical energy of the first, but some of the singing quality of the second, while introducing a new feeling of burlesque. There is some spoken material too (in German). A series of metric modulations take the music into new territory with heightened vigour, and with a growing sense of abandon. The middle section is a waltz based on the lyrical, plainsong-inflected slow material from earlier in the piece. A final detour, at the resumed speech, takes the music to a tragic outburst, leading to an unaccompanied cadenza for the soloist. A brief codetta brings the work to a full stop. The work is dedicated to Vadim Repin and in memoriam Ellen MacMillan (1935- 2008).
