Year composed: 1998
Duration: 10′
Instrumentation: violin and piano
Commissioned by Karen Bentley and premiered in Menlo Park, CA, Spring 1998. Recorded on la mar amarga album (Albany Records).
Notes:
Back to Square One explores the concept of identity through its double nature, change and stasis. It exposes and develops a primal cell even as it manifests a series of apparently dissimilar musical ideas. The title refers to Cox’s own reconsideration of melody and rhythm and, not surprisingly, embodies her recent return to “square one” in an attempt at revision. The piece was written for Karen Bentley and Karen Rosenak, and is dedicated to them.
–John Campion