I like to think of myself as a lapsed violist. I studied viola for ten years—from elementary school through high school—and while my playing never advanced beyond that of an “enthusiastic beginner,” and I’ve only picked up the instrument a handful of times since high school, the viola remains a part of my identity.
In composing Viola Redux, I wanted to dust off the (mostly figurative) cobwebs from my viola and reconsider its place in my current, data-driven musical practice. The piece is built entirely from recordings of the viola played in unconventional ways—striking the body with yarn mallets, scraping the strings with a whisk—which are manipulated in real time using Kyma, Max, and an Akai APC 20 MIDI controller. It’s an exploration of my relationship with an instrument that is distant, yet somehow still central to my life. What does the viola mean to me today? What kind of music would I create with an instrument I’ve barely touched in years? How does the past leave its faded yet indelible fingerprints on the—
Well, maybe it’s not that deep. It’s just a viola piece, after all.