Victor Kissine
Duo II
after Ossip Mandelstam
Victor Kissine
Duo II
after Ossip Mandelstam
- Instrumentation String Duet (Cello and Viola)
- Composer Victor Kissine
-
Difficulty Level
- Edition Sheet Music
- Publisher M.P. Belaieff
- Order no. BEL629
ships within 2-4 weeks
Description:
Duo (after Ossip Mandelstam) refers to a short poem from his 1910 collection Kamen (Stone), which underlies my piece: not only is this poem its epigraph, it is also quoted metrically throughout in the instrumental texture. Here are the first lines of the English translation:Ears stretch sensitive sails,dilated eyes lose fire,over the silence swimsthe night-birds' soundless choir.Even though a translation may give some idea of the images, I doubt that it conveys the respiration of this poem, its breath. But this was precisely what I wanted to do. So I decided to accomplish this simply: by 'translating' the very first image by the sea wind. It begins with the viola, followed by the 'voiceless choir' played by the cello with a vertically positioned bow. So the emergence of the real sound at the end of the first movement marks the transformation of wind into breath. The second movement has a concentric form which also developes in waves and gives the 'voiceless choir' its voice. The final movement, Adagietto, adjusts the respiration to a regular pace - a reference to J. S. Bach. The coda, finally, goes back to the initial metaphor: breath = wind. (Victor Kissine)