Search - Joanna Kurkowicz :: Svara-Yantra

Svara-Yantra is a violin concerto in three movements, written for violin, tabla, and symphony orchestra. Svara-Yantra was inspired by the brilliant and passionate playing of the violinist Joanna Kurkowicz. Svara refers to pitches or notes in Indian music theory, but in this piece it means audible sound or shruti. Yantra is a term for geometric diagrams, usually consisting of intersecting triangles and circles, which are used to harness the mind in meditation. Svara-Yantra represents three sonic meditations on Raga and Tala. It is based on the Alap-Jor-Jhalla-Gat structure of North Indian classical music. Like an Indian Raga performance, the three movements in my piece form a continuum of tempos, from very slow in the first movement to extremely fast in the third movement. The first movement, Alap Rag Misra Pilu, is dedicated to Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasria. Raga Pilu unfolds gradually with the violin playing a long ornamental arch-like melody against a drone-like harmonic mosaic, which forms the orchestral backdrop to the violin line. The orchestral harmonies represent a transformation of the drone into harmonic fields and a vertical spatialization of the Raga into several spectral layers. The second movement, Rag Kerwani, is inspired by the great South Indian violin master L. Subramaniam, and is based on a chaconne-like structure. The 5/4 theme, made essentially of a three note motif (A, G, F#) is repeated 3 times, each time in rhythmic diminution (dotted quarters, quarters, and eights). The theme forms a point of reference for variations of increasing complexity which follow, and culminate in a tabla solo. A final restatement and elaboration of the theme concludes this movement. After an improvised cadenza which draws on themes from the first two movements, and composed by Joanna Kurkowicz, materials for the third movement are introduced. Joy, the final movement is based on a composition by the jazz guitarist John McLaughlin and consists of an orchestral tutti in unison, followed by a violin-tabla duet cadenza and a return of the orchestral tutti. The third movement is dedicated to the violinist Joanna Kurkowicz, Samir Chatterjee, and John McLaughlin. Svara-Yantra was commissioned by Joanna Kurkowicz, and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and was premiered on November 27, 2005 in Katowice, Poland under the direction of Rubén Silva.