Amy Stewart (b. 2001)  – Babbling and Breathing

Commissioned by Live Music Now Scotland, ‘Babbling and Breathing’ for violin and accordion was written for the Twogether Duo, for the setting of a residential care home. The music is gentle and texture-based, allowing listeners to breathe deeply with the goal of helping them feel relaxed. It utilises the nature of both the violin and accordion as instruments that need ‘breath’, by means of bow or bellows, encouraging listeners to slow down and breathe along.

This still music is interspersed with two fast paced melodic tunes, written about anything that ‘babbles’; a brook, or stream perhaps, or even a family member or friend with a tendency to ‘go on’ a little too long! The first of the tunes has a certain Scottish flair, and the second a more contemporary interpretation of ‘babbling’, both with exciting flourishes and explorations of colour through harmony and rhythm. The piece can be performed in order of the following movements:

I. Breathing I

II. Babbling I

III. Breathing II

IV. Babbling II

V. Breathing III

However, these movements are interchangeable and can be performed separately, or in other groupings too, all dependent on the audience and setting. The musicians’ role in the piece is less ‘performer’, less about the notes on the page and more ‘facilitator’, more about the lives and stories and people gathered in the room, helping and encourage the audience to connect with their own breath and emotions.

Amy Stewart

Arvo Pärt (b.1935) – Fratres

Fratres (meaning “brothers” in Latin) is a musical work by the outstanding Estonian composer Arvo Pärt exemplifying his tintinnabuli style of composition. It is three-part music, written in 1977, without fixed instrumentation and has been described as a “mesmerizing set of variations on a six-bar theme combining frantic activity and sublime stillness that encapsulates Pärt’s observation that “the instant and eternity are struggling within us”.

Rade Zivanovic

Li Guo-Quan (1914-1966) – Fishermen’s Song at Eventide

Renowned Chinese musician Guo-Quan Li, inspired by the zheng composition of the same name (ancient Zheng melody called Gui Qu Lai (Returning), has skillfully adapted and composed it into a violin piece in 1956. “Fishermen’s Song at Eventide” depicts the sunset casting its glow on vast green waves, portraying the tranquil delight of fishermen as their boats gracefully drift away with the current. With a melodic and lyrical quality, the piece vividly captures the setting sun, colorful evening glow, lively fishing songs, and the joyful scene of fishermen returning with a bountiful harvest. It expresses the author’s praise and love for the beautiful rivers and mountains of their homeland.

Huixin Hu

Mikhail Bronner (b.1952 )– Jewish Happiness

“Jewish Happiness” is a sarcastic tango written in 2011 by well-known contemporary Russian composer Mikhail Bronner for violin and accordion. The composer is very prolific, having written over 400 pieces in a variety of genres and styles. By the end of the 20th century, Bronner was starting to compose about the Bible and its people. The accordion frequently appears in is sacred and Jewish-themed opuses; he explains this by saying, “I put the accordion into the most complex, inexplicable stories that lie beyond my understanding. The accordion’s timbre strikes me as unique, tranquil, and somewhat reminiscent of my personality.  I have no idea why. The pieces themselves are my response”.

Alena Bulatetskaya