Duration: c. 3'
DETAILS
COMMISSIONED by Kirk Smith, for Yvonne Smith.
PREMIERED by Yvonne Smith, Shepherd School of
Music, November 22, 2009.
HEAR & WATCH Yvonne Smith in performance.
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PROGRAM NOTES
In early 2009, conductor Kirk Smith commissioned me to write a short piece for unaccompanied viola, as a
high school graduation gift for his daughter Yvonne. What a great dad! Kirk also sent me recordings of Yvonne playing Hindemith and Bach, and I was very excited to write a new piece for Yvonne who brings passion and precision in equal strong doses.
Yvonne Smith premiered SPARK November 22, 2009 as a freshman at The Shepherd
School of Music in Houston.
SPARK is just a short spark of an idea, designed to peak and conclude within a
few minutes. It has a lot of gritty drive, a polymetric parody of
a Bach Suite, some flavorings from funk and the 19th-century German masters, and in the long run is a series of build-ups into a romantic tune that finally blossoms as the coda.
REVIEWS
"The 'radiantly happy' direction at the start of the piece is very appropriate. It is lively, but not terribly fast. Going too fast will make many of the required techniques exceedingly difficult. It uses the meters: 4/4, 5/4, 3/8, 5/8, 7/8, and 9/8. The techniques sul ponticello, sliding into notes, double stops, and chords are also used regularly. The tune is not very high pitched (only a handful of measures require a shift for high pitch reasons), but almost every measure includes sweeping string crossings, so shifts will be required to manage the string crossings plus the indicated accidentals. The string crossings are very arpeggiated, but are not all conventional arpeggio patterns. There are very clear directions for going between meters and styles. In addition to the variety of styles, there are also dramatic dynamics and a great variety of bow division patters (all different combinations of notes slurred/hooked/tied). This beautiful three-minute piece for solo viola, no piano accompaniment, will show off the range of the viola and the talents of the performer (intonation, bow control, tone on all strings in all ranges). There is a well-done YouTube video recording of the piece, performed by the young lady it was commissioned for (Yvonne Smith) with over 1.3K views. I think any advanced violist will find this piece a job to conquer and share with audiences.
– American String Teacher (L.J.F.), February 2018
