Is and Air

PROGRAM NOTES
Is and Air (2024)

Each section of Is and Air explores a physical and metaphorical bond between the trumpet and the violin. In 2023, violinist Sini Virtanen and trumpeter Arda Cabaoglu requested a ceremonial piece to commemorate their marriage. I asked them to send me brief recordings of each playing their instrument independently and then together. Sini sent her favorite double stop, Arda sent long notes with various mutes, and together they sent two Bartok Wedding duets. I analyzed the recordings’ acoustic structures, digitally processed them, and composed them into new timbral relationships. For example, the instruments seem to be independent in the opening section; however, here the violin symbolically completes the trumpet. I digitally removed the pitch from the trumpet’s note, leaving extremely complex and quiet artifacts, which are presented in the violin’s virtuosic opening gesture. The trumpet answers with the full note, emphasizing its strongest overtones and providing the pitch for the violin’s next entrance. Through these kinds of acoustic manipulations, the performers’ timbres gradually come together in increasingly obvious ways, creating composite structures and shifting moods. At the end, the original materials are presented, fully blended into one musical statement. Is and Air is an anagram of Sini and Arda’s names.

Premiere Performance:
Arda Cabaoglu, trumpet
Sini Virtanen, violin
March 14, 2025, 7:30pm
CAMPGround25
Red Door No. 5
Tampa, Florida, United States