Sonata
for solo violin
Composed for Harry Egerton
World premiere performance: 18 Jun 2024 at 3:30pm, Rosina Auditorium
Performed as part of ANAM 2024 Recitals
by Harry Egerton (violin)
This ANAM Set commission was generously supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia and the Anthony and Sharon Lee Foundation
Program note:
Ocean Rustles Prelude and Heavy Metal Fugue reflects my current obsession with Just Intonation, as a way of potentially expanding and enriching the materials which Western music could have at its disposal. To anchor these experiments to tradition, I have taken J. S. Bach as an unusually close model. The Prelude uses a pitch set crafted directly from notes of the harmonic series, curating them purely from their numerical properties. It is a deeply contemplative opening interleaving two contrasting ideas. The "ocean" material is quite restricted, comprising slowly rocking pairs of subtly gradated notes contained within a pure fifth on the G-string. These deep, still, dark surfaces lift up into delicate threads of shimmering figuration which range more extensively over the other three strings, representing autumn leaves rustling. Heavy Metal Fugue is driving, aggressive, harsh, forceful, and biting. It is written in Pythagorean tuning, an infinite linear Just Intonation system created from stacking pure fifths above and below a tonic note. Our equal-tempered system approximates it quite well, but the purely tuned version is somehow cleaner, more austere and unforgiving. It is a marvel to me how, in his three magnificent fugues from the solo violin sonatas, Bach creates the illusion (for it is an illusion) of complex contrapuntal conversation for what is ostensibly a single-line instrument. I have studied carefully and reverently the ways he achieves this, and I hope my facsimile manages to convince in creating this impression.
About the composer:
Peter de Jager (he/they) is a Melbourne-based pianist, harpsichordist and composer, with a wide repertoire spanning standard repertoire, early music, contemporary music, as well as music theatre and cabaret. Career performance highlights include winning the inaugural Australian International Chopin Competition in 2011, thrice attending the Lucerne Festival Academy under the baton and artistic direction of Pierre Boulez, commissioning and performing Chris Dench's massive 98-minute Piano Sonata (for which he won an Art Music Award), performing all five of Xenakis' major keyboard works in a single concert at the Melbourne Festival in 2017, and co-writing and performing Reception: The Musical with actor and writer Bethany Simons.
Peter's compositions have wide-ranging influences: from Byrd, Rachmanino, Ligeti, and Xenakis to Sondheim, Radiohead, Tool, and Tori Amos. He also has a keen interest in Middle Eastern classical music and is currently learning the oud. His compositions have been commissioned by Astra, ANAM, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Speak Percussion, Arcadia Winds, and others.
Peter is currently completing a PhD in Spanish Renaissance keyboard music. He also enjoys fine craft beer and craft chocolate, and watching YouTube videos about maths.