RONDO FOR CLARA (2020)

Violin

performed by Clara Kim

Rondo for Clara was composed in March 2020 for Clara Kim during the Coronavirus shelter in place orders. The pseudo sonata rondo form of the piece is comprised of two themes. The first – hot blood red, resonant, angry, athletic, linear, and rhythmically free. The second being its polar opposite – pale grey blue, muted, wistful, rhythmically precise, and arpeggiated. The first theme holds the principal role and acts as the rondo’s refrain with subtle variation upon each return. The second theme is subjected to increasingly significant variation, such that the episodes become almost unrecognizable from their source material, and that each stands as its own unique section. The piece was composed during a time of personal mourning and uncertainty against the backdrop of global mourning and uncertainty.