Jonathan Shaw

     This was a very basic piece, inspired out of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in D. All I can remember from writing it was that I spent many lunch hours at college scoring it. I attempted to mimic Bach’s fortspinning style and juggle the themes between each soloist so that neither seemed more virtuosic than the other.

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     The first movement was originally going to end at bar 152, with a typical I – V – I cadence mirroring bars 114 – 116, but I decided to create an interruption and continue the piece a little longer as it was rather short. This similarly allowed me to return to the introductory material, inspired by sonata form, albeit a very crude and inexperienced sonata form. I only just noticed as of writing that I incorrectly placed an F-sharp and F-natural at the same time at bar 158 - whoops!

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     The second movement, which I have just listened to for the first time in many years, sounds hilariously reminiscent of some cheesy film melody. There is some similarity to one of my earliest compositions – C.2 – with the cliché sequences and repetitious nature. Much to my shock, there was an augmented sixth chord at bar 63 – whether I knew this at the time I can’t recall, but it made me raise an eyebrow.

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     The final movement imitates Bach’s style the closest – of course, still not that close – but in combination with a witty style that sounds almost comedic. Looking back on this one, I quite enjoy it – it is playful and energetic, the characteristics I find easiest to compose with. The soloistic triplet cadenza was fun, but it is a shame the harmonic sequence is so bland. The ending cadential pattern is very wrong, and feels far from finished.

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     Nonetheless, that was my first (and probably last) concerto, and from it I learned a lot about writing for string instruments.