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EARLY MUSINGS

NEW MUSIC FOR VIOLIN

DAVIS BROOKS VIOLIN & ELECTRIC VIOLIN

 

OVERVIEW

 

EARLY MUSINGS presents a comprehensive collection of new works for solo violin composed by American and American-based composers, almost all of whom were born after 1990. Though young, these composers’ music speaks to the core strengths of solo violin repertoire, a genre that has represented a prominent pillar in the Western chamber music canon since the seventeenth century.

 

Across its ten composers, EARLY MUSINGS remains impressive in its variety and range of musical expression. In addition to each piece’s strengths, violinist Davis Brooks also succeeds beautifully at embodying the musical landscape of a given composition. To this end, nearly all the album’s pieces feature a traditional instrumentation, insofar as they use an unmodified violin, except for one notable outlier. Derek Holden’s memorable Break Off The Aubergine Crystal Skin is written for electric violin with added electronics. Here, Brooks sounds just a losive, wild, and abstract solo as he does rendering the J. R. Speake’s more conventionally playful Caper Fair.

 

From the album’s beginning to end, Brooks and his violin are chameleons, not only jumping dramatically from the world of distorted, psychedelic rock to a more typical Classical performance style, but also moving through the unique nuances of each composer’s approach to the solo violin. Every piece on EARLY MUSINGS excels in meeting the challenge of this genre, which demands composers create broad, variegated musical worlds with the violin’s four strings and a single player.

 

In many works, such as Corey Fant’s …Of Minds…Of The Eyes…, and J.M. Smith’s Shroud, the Shadow, we can hear distinct musical spaces constructed through contrasts in register and instrumental color, or timbre. Tyler Jones’ five-movement work Solitude – the largest piece on the album – uses these techniques to yield a series of intense and richly detailed character pieces depicting a sleepless night. Solitude also summarizes the intimacy inherent to every piece on EARLY MUSINGS, as all solo violin music invites the listener to envision himself or herself personified in the expressions of this single instrument.

 

 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

EARLY MUSINGS is the culmination of a four-month teaching and recording project between violinist Davis Brooks and ten young composers from Alabama

 

Currently Professor of Violin Emeritus at Butler University in Indianapolis, and University of Alabama School of Music Endowed Chair in Music Composition, Dr. Davis Brooks is a musician, Broadway concertmaster, and conductor

 

The compositions achieve a marked variety of styles while all highlighting the same instrumentation

 

All composers are students or recent graduates of the University of Alabama

 

ALSO ON NAVONA

 

VIOLIN FUTURA

Piotr Szewczyk

Release Date November 18, 2016

Catalog #: NV6063

 

 

TRACK LISTING

Davis Brooks violin & electric violin

 

Balee Pongklad

Ride

 

Tyler Entelisano

Otherworldly Shimmer

 

Corey Fant

....Of the Mind

....Of the Eyes

 

Derek Holden

Break Off the Aubergine Crystal Skin

 

J.M. Smith

Shroud, the Shadow

 

Thomas L. Wilson

The Reflections of My Introverted Sneakers

 

Tyler Jones

Solitude

I. Meandering and Restless Thought

II. Three Chimeras

10  III. Sullen Introspection

11  IV. Nostalgia

12  V. Catharsis

 

Kilian Afzalirad

13  Drama of the Dirt

 

J. R. Speake

14  Caper Fair

 

Jared Bradley Tubbs

15  Unknown Conversations

 

 

CREDITS

 

Recorded February - April 2016 at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa AL

 

Session Producers C. P. First and Davis Brooks

Assistant Producers  Tyler Entelisano, Corey Fant, J. M. Smith

Session Engineers C. P. First, Tyler Entelisano, Corey Fant, J. M. Smith, &

Thomas L. Wilson

 

Executive Producer Bob Lord

Executive A&R Sam Renshaw

A&R Alex Bourne

Audio Director Jeff LeRoy

Production Engineers Nate Hunter, Lucas Paquette

Art & Production Director Brett Picknell

Graphic Design Emily Roulo

Marketing Mike Mahn

© NAVONA RECORDS LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 

Navona Records offers listeners a fresh taste of today's leading innovators in orchestral, chamber, instrumental, and experimental music as well as prime pieces of classic repertoire. Our music is meticulously performed by the finest musicians and handpicked to ensure the most rewarding listening experience.

 

www.navonarecords.com

223 Lafayette Road

North Hampton NH 03862

 

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