2 mins
Electric echoes
A Baroque-inspired piece for electric violin and acoustic ensemble
A ROYAL WELCOME: During her 70-year reign, Her Majesty the Queen recognised the achievements of classical musicians in many ways. In 2016, Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti was the first string player to receive the Queen’s Medal for Music from Elizabeth II, an award instituted by the late monarch in 2005. Since then, the only other string musician to have received the award has been jazz bassist Gary Crosby in 2018.
Photo: Dominic Lipinski/Getty
COMPOSER Samuel Adams
WORK Echo Transcriptions
ARTIST Richard Tognetti (electric violin) Australian Chamber Orchestra
DATE 11 November 2022
PLACE Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, Australia bit.ly/3xqRFfb
Samuel Adams
Australian Chamber Orchestra
ADAMS PHOTO LENNY GONZALEZ. ACO PHOTO STEPHEN WARD
'It was a completely new experience for me, dealing with an electric violin,’ says American composer Samuel Adams about his new work for six-stringed electric violin and string ensemble for the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO). The ACO’s artistic director, Richard Tognetti, commissioned the work shortly after a successful collaboration with the composer in 2018.
Alongside the electric violin and acoustic string orchestra, the piece also includes a six-stringed electric bass and a Moog synthesizer. ‘The piece is one long twelve-minute line that never breaks,’ Adams says. To create the ensemble’s part, Adams transcribed an electronically processed version of the solo violin line in his home studio. ‘The orchestra is a constantly changing echo chamber around Richard’s sound,’ he says.
A bass player himself, Adams takes full advantage of the violin’s large range, which, with electronic effects, can reach lower than a cello’s. ‘The extended range opens up rhetorical possibilities. Sometimes the violin rides on top of the ensemble, but sometimes it becomes a supporting bass voice. It’s a very fluid piece, and Richard’s role is changing from bar to bar.’ Having written extensively for acoustic violin, Adams explains that he had to ‘disassociate with the treble quality of the instrument and lean into its great amplified bass sound’.
Far away from the world of electric instruments, Adams used Baroque composition techniques throughout the work such as canons, ritornelli and ‘rapid-fire sixteenth-note passages’. ‘The virtuosity of the piece finds itself in the extreme sensitivity of dynamic and colours. The electric violin is really integrated, just like Richard as the leader of the group.’ He explains that the ACO’s chamber-like atmosphere was a large influence in the writing of the piece. ‘They work in such an organic and natural way. The piece is in incredibly good hands.’