Three Duets for Violin & Pianoforte

Duet No. 1 in A ’Song Bird’ (1973, Rev’d December 2009) Duet No.2 in F, ’Aseda’ (In Thanksgiving) for Violin & Pianoforte (1975, Rev’d September 2009) Duet No. 3 in D ’From the Durbar’ for Violin & Pianoforte (1976, October 2009) The three Duets for Violin & Pianoforte are revisions of three older duets, written between 1973 and 1976 before my travel to the United States for graduate studies - that would suite the intermediate and the advanced player. This excercise was done during the months of September/December, 2009 in Seattle. In these pieces, there is the attempt to captuure the African harmonic, melodic and rhythmic musical thought processes. Western musical sound ideal would be essentially expressed as "sound in motion" while that of African music would be the reverse - "motion in Sound." My acculturation therefore consisted of the mastery of these seemingly diametrically opposed aesthetic positions that underpin my compositions From a formal standpoint, The duets are architecturally structured - perhaps, from hind sight, following the same logic as found in the sonata form but where the reprise would have special elements that make it welcome the second time round. The melodic outlines reflect the African singing mannerisms - depicting tertian and quartal generations of motions - with built-in sighs at some places, a phenomenon that is a characteristic feature of the tonal African languages or dialects. The harmonic structures also reflect quartal and tertian generations of motions. Dur. 6:00

Dr. E. Gyimah Labi Seattle, WA, USA December 2009