From the composer Michael TorkeThe Erie Philharmonic will present the regional premiere of this Grammy-nominated concerto on January 18 at the Warner Theatre.
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I felt, in writing this piece, that there was an openness, or a kind of a renewed freshness, I had working with musical materials, because I was working in a new form. It took out all the cobwebs in the brain, all the old habits. It loosened me up, and I thank Tessa Lark for opening this door of the imagination.
Out of the blue, an inquiry came from this young violinist, Tessa Lark. She had been given the opportunity to play a debut concert at Carnegie Recital Hall and was given money to commission. Her boyfriend, Michael Thurber, said, “Check out this guy's music.” So she did, and she called me up and said, “You want to work together?” I said, “Sure.”
I wrote a piece for violin and piano called 'Spoon Bread.' In the program note I wrote how, with the détaché bowing — one bow stroke per note — it brought about a harkening back to baroque music, but also to a bluegrass tradition. And, after all, Tessa's from Kentucky. So here I was, making these claims of a bluegrass influence.
We went into the recording studio not long after, and we were on a break when I said, 'Tessa, how would you feel if I was really inspired by bluegrass and not something you say in a program note?' And then the engineer of this recording, Silas Brown, said, “Now that's an idea. If you do that, Michael, and Tessa, you play it, I'll record it!”
For example, I started with banjo picking, because to me it's so intricate. The theme to the “Beverly Hillbillies” was performed by one of the biggest names in the business, Earl Scruggs. When I was growing up, I always thought that was the most amazing music I ever heard. So I slowed it down, I transcribed it, and I thought, Well, wouldn't it be interesting if you took banjo picking, and you gave it to a violin to play? So I first had to learn the style, second, how to write for banjo, and then third, figure out how to give it to the violin. That's what you hear in the first movement.
Tessa later told me that Irish fiddle players do some of the same techniques and have the same expression as bluegrass fiddlers. I started studying Irish music, and there you have jigs and reels. It's a different kind of thing, but some of the music sounds similar, just different. I thought, Well, what if I composed a reel and slowed it down, and that could become the second movement?
I learned something important working with Tessa. I think she is both brilliant as a human being and as an artist. I wanted to do something special with her. I talked it over, and then we sat down, and we did it. I said, “Don't worry about contracts. Don't worry about money. Don't worry about anything.” We didn't even have an orchestra at that point. But we both believed that it could become something, and I think that that leads me to do my best work. An artistic impulse must come first. The other stuff will follow.
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