EARLY MUSINGS
NEW MUSIC FOR VIOLIN
DAVIS BROOKS VIOLIN & ELECTRIC VIOLIN
OVERVIEW
EARLY MUSINGS presents a comprehensive collection of new works for solo violin composed by American and American-based composers, almost all of whom were born after 1990. Though young, these composers’ music speaks to the core strengths of solo violin repertoire, a genre that has represented a prominent pillar in the Western chamber music canon since the seventeenth century.
Across its ten composers, EARLY MUSINGS remains impressive in its variety and range of musical expression. In addition to each piece’s strengths, violinist Davis Brooks also succeeds beautifully at embodying the musical landscape of a given composition. To this end, nearly all the album’s pieces feature a traditional instrumentation, insofar as they use an unmodified violin, except for one notable outlier. Derek Holden’s memorable Break Off The Aubergine Crystal Skin is written for electric violin with added electronics. Here, Brooks sounds just a losive, wild, and abstract solo as he does rendering the J. R. Speake’s more conventionally playful Caper Fair.
From the album’s beginning to end, Brooks and his violin are chameleons, not only jumping dramatically from the world of distorted, psychedelic rock to a more typical Classical performance style, but also moving through the unique nuances of each composer’s approach to the solo violin. Every piece on EARLY MUSINGS excels in meeting the challenge of this genre, which demands composers create broad, variegated musical worlds with the violin’s four strings and a single player.
In many works, such as Corey Fant’s …Of Minds…Of The Eyes…, and J.M. Smith’s Shroud, the Shadow, we can hear distinct musical spaces constructed through contrasts in register and instrumental color, or timbre. Tyler Jones’ five-movement work Solitude – the largest piece on the album – uses these techniques to yield a series of intense and richly detailed character pieces depicting a sleepless night. Solitude also summarizes the intimacy inherent to every piece on EARLY MUSINGS, as all solo violin music invites the listener to envision himself or herself personified in the expressions of this single instrument.
HIGHLIGHTS
EARLY MUSINGS is the culmination of a four-month teaching and recording project between violinist Davis Brooks and ten young composers from Alabama
Currently Professor of Violin Emeritus at Butler University in Indianapolis, and University of Alabama School of Music Endowed Chair in Music Composition, Dr. Davis Brooks is a musician, Broadway concertmaster, and conductor
The compositions achieve a marked variety of styles while all highlighting the same instrumentation
All composers are students or recent graduates of the University of Alabama
ALSO ON NAVONA
Piotr Szewczyk
Release Date November 18, 2016
Catalog #: NV6063
TRACK LISTING
Davis Brooks violin & electric violin
Balee Pongklad
1 Ride
Tyler Entelisano
2 Otherworldly Shimmer
Corey Fant
3 ....Of the Mind
4 ....Of the Eyes
Derek Holden
5 Break Off the Aubergine Crystal Skin
J.M. Smith
6 Shroud, the Shadow
Thomas L. Wilson
7 The Reflections of My Introverted Sneakers
Tyler Jones
Solitude
8 I. Meandering and Restless Thought
9 II. Three Chimeras
10 III. Sullen Introspection
11 IV. Nostalgia
12 V. Catharsis
Kilian Afzalirad
13 Drama of the Dirt
J. R. Speake
14 Caper Fair
Jared Bradley Tubbs
15 Unknown Conversations
CREDITS
Recorded February - April 2016 at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa AL
Session Producers C. P. First and Davis Brooks
Assistant Producers Tyler Entelisano, Corey Fant, J. M. Smith
Session Engineers C. P. First, Tyler Entelisano, Corey Fant, J. M. Smith, &
Thomas L. Wilson
Executive Producer Bob Lord
Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
A&R Alex Bourne
Audio Director Jeff LeRoy
Production Engineers Nate Hunter, Lucas Paquette
Art & Production Director Brett Picknell
Graphic Design Emily Roulo
Marketing Mike Mahn
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Navona Records offers listeners a fresh taste of today's leading innovators in orchestral, chamber, instrumental, and experimental music as well as prime pieces of classic repertoire. Our music is meticulously performed by the finest musicians and handpicked to ensure the most rewarding listening experience.
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