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- Du Yun
Under a tree, an udātta (2016)
- G Schirmer Inc (World)
Programme Note
Composer note
The playback is a chant from a temple, to be played right before the violinist starts through the end, with a gradual fade once the violinist ends.
A heart murmur.
— Du Yun
udātta: A high pitch accent of Vedic Sanskrit, the acute and unchangeable accent is called udātta, which is the principal linguistic accent marker that is unique to each word carrying a particular meaning. Vedic Sanskrit has a pitch-based accent for each word.
Media
Reviews
Against the gently rolling rhythm of Vedic chanting, [David] Bowlin employs a vocabulary of harsh low tremolos, flitting arpeggiations, wide vibrato, and crunchy microtonal double stops. The most pervasive element of Under a Tree is the drone: supplied not only by the monks’ chanting, but also the violin’s open D string. Yet this drone differs from all previous examples within Bird as Prophet — not as a tonal anchor for shifting, searching harmonies, not as an expressive reflection of the melodic material above it, but as a true constant. While there is a sense of progression in the violin part, it is always in relation to a cyclic, timeless backdrop, a paradox of stillness within movement.