The Vjola Suite

Ljova: "The Vjola Suite"

00:00 Bagel on the Malecon

03:33 Plume

06:58 Ori's Fearful Symmetry

13:28 Crosstown

20:15 Budget Bulgar

performed by Art of Élan Artists

Wes Precourt & Kate Hatmaker, violins

Hanah Stuart, viola, Alex Greenbaum, cello

Jeremy Kurtz-Harris, bass

premiere recording of the complete suite

"The Vjola Suite" is a collection of five short musical compositions in contrasting musical styles, heavily influenced by folk music from Eastern Europe, Cuba, Mali, and the Middle East. It is a collection of lively dances, for which the steps have not yet been choreographed, and represent my attempt to fuse the rhythms of world music with the beautiful colors of a classical ensemble, to create a new kind of dance — elegant, entertaining, and somewhat asymmetrical. While none of the rhythms are genuinely traditional, they aspire to create a new sense of balance, enjoyment, and flight.

All but one (Budget Bulgar) were released on my debut recording, "Vjola: World on Four Strings" as multi-track viola sketches, and then re-imagined for various combinations.

BAGEL ON THE MALECÓN My favorite paradox of Cuban music is that the bass is never "on the beat", while everything else feels groovy and relaxed. In "Bagel on the Malecon", I tried to lift the Cuban "son" grooves from their solid grounding, beyond dancing steps, to a place where the melody and the bass take flight — yet still hold together as a hummable melody. The title is a flight in itself - a utopian fantasy of enjoying a New York bagel on the Malecón, the main boardwalk in Havana, Cuba.

PLUME I sketched "Plume" while my then-girlfriend (and now-wife) was studying at Oxford, and I was listening to the magical voice of Rokia Traore. I tried to create a sensuous music for belly dancing, without actually being very familiar with the genre at the time.

ORI'S FEARFUL SYMMETRY was originally intended to be a sort of an unofficial anthem of courage for Israeli youth. I sketched it while hiking in the canyons of Ithaca, New York, where director Zohar Lavi was shooting the short film "Chronicle of a Jump", starring our friend Ori. I was hoping this music would become the theme, an inspiring courageous dance in an unusual grouping of 9/8 (3+2+2+2). As the editing process began, it was decided that the film worked better in silence, and the music found an audience of its own.

CROSSTOWN is a meditative dance, in which I attempted to fuse the delicate rhythms of music from Mali with improvisational colors from India, all sketched aboard a slow ride on a late-night bus in New York city. It was inspired by Rokia Traore's collaboration with the Kronos Quartet.

BUDGET BULGAR, a fiery klezmer tune, was sketched between playing dance sets at a Russian wedding in western New Jersey, and is dedicated to Pete Sokolow, for many years the king of Jewish weddings in New York, a great klez-stride pianist, and an incredible personality. I propped my cellphone on the hood of a car in the parking lot, and left myself a voicemail with the melody, which I transcribed (and altered) at home.

"The Vjola Suite" was commissioned by the Angel Orensanz Center for the Arts with funds from the American Composers Forum and Arts International.

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