15. Between The Strings

From the simplest prehistoric bow whose taut string produced sound – in every era and every culture, we find stringed instruments. Plucked, bowed, and struck. Portable and larger ones. Instruments that not only produce sound but also look stunning, serving as ornaments in drawing rooms and concert halls alike. A string orchestra could sound thoroughly modern in the times of Mozart, Dvořák, and Penderecki, as well as today. This is how Malcolm Arnold treated it in his Concerto for Two Violins and String Orchestra, with its breakneck solo parts, contemporary energy, and action that races along with cinematic intensity. At the same time, string ensembles also inspire composers to engage in a dialogue with the past. In his Holberg Suite, composed towards the end of the 19th century, Edvard Grieg drew upon dances from the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries – a dignified sarabande, a lively rigaudon, and a boisterous gavotte with a folk musette imitating bagpipes. In the mid-20th century, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki evoked the atmosphere of the Renaissance in his Three Pieces in Old Style, responding with catchy music to the accusation that his music had thus far lacked melody. Claude Debussy looked even further back into the past – in Danses sacrées et profane, he drew inspiration from antiquity, assigning the harp the role of the Greek lyre. Thus, a dialogue between strings can also be a dialogue between eras.

– Dominika Micał (pisanezesluchu.pl)