VIOLIN – Solo/Duo
Violin
When Our Concerns will be Forgotten (4/29/21) for solo violin – 6’00”. Our life on earth is finite. Whether we are lucky enough to live a long, healthy, prosperous life or be burdened with disease and poverty, we all face the same end. While it is the final ending for each of us, at the time of our death, others carry on. What we do collectively is important. Our planet must support us, and how we treat our home may determine how long people will be able to live on it.
First, there is the slow, disjunct opening phrase, evoking a sense of longing. It returns many times and in many guises. Next, there are the staccato double stops. These either expand or contract. Finally, there are the sixteen-note runs, scale-like passages filled with sudden leaps and ending in arpeggiation. One should think of these elements as life’s challenges and note that they end with a high, lonely, sustained pitch. MIDI performance.
Summer Rains (5/16/14) for violin and piano – 10’30”. Summer along the coastal plains of eastern North Carolina is hot, humid and very sticky. Relief, when it comes, is usually in the form of rain.
Live Online Performance. The work was premiered online by Yang Liu, violin, and I-Hsuan Tsai, piano, on June 3, 2020.
Fourth Sonata for violin and piano (2011, revised 2020) – 15’00”. The work received two recent performances in 2023 by Yang Liu and I-Hsuan Tsai – the premiere 0n October 17, both online and in studio, by New Music Chicago Presents and live on N0vember 10 at north Central College, Naperville, Illinois.
Live Performance, from the October premiere.
Journeys (2010) for violin and piano – 5’00”. The title refers both to physical and spiritual movement.
Margaret Partridge, violin.
Live Performance. The piece was premiered by Margaret Partridge, violin, and James Schmidt, piano, on March 21, 2010 at CCCC.
Another fine performance of Journeys with Brooke Gunter, violin and Marie Jreit-Beamish, piano.
Live Performance. From the Sunset Concerts at the Gallery in Stuart, Florida, on October 9, 2018, 
Brooke Gunter
Yang Liu and I-Hsuan Tsai premiered all four: Affinity, Seascapes, Movements for Violin and Piano and the Fourth Violin Sonata
Movements for Violin and Piano (2010) – 13’00”. This work was adapted from Movements for Viola and Piano (1980). The new work features an expended second movement and a new cadenza in the finale.
Live Performance. The work was premiered October 18, 2011, by Yang Liu, violin, and I-Hsuan Tsai, piano, at Trinity United Metheodist Church in Jacksonville, NC.
Seascapes (2005) Sonata for violin and piano – 13’30”. The sonata is in three movements: “The Deep and Dark Blue Ocean” is bold and churning, “Silver Wings and Silent Grottoes” is rhythmic and cheerful, and “Sea Oats and Changing Tides” is wistful and calm.
Live Performance. The work was premiered September 30, 2007, by Yang Liu, violin and I-Hsuan Tsai, piano, at Trinity United Metheodist Church in Jacksonville, NC.
Affinity (2005) Sonata for violin and piano – 15’00”. The sonata is in four movements that describe the developing love between a man and a woman.
Live Performance. The work was premiered in March 2006, by Yang Liu, violin and I-Hsuan Tsai, piano, at Coastal Carolina Community College.
Back on Track (1992) for violin and viola – 15’20”. Not currently available.
Live performance. Margaret and Hugh Partridge premiered Back on Track for the re-opening of the Page-Walker Hotel in Cary, NC, on April 5, 1992.
Margaret Partridge, violin