Violin Concerto (2019)

I have long been fascinated by group psychology and the relation of the individual to large social groups. It is an interest particularly pertinent to the current political landscape and the events which have led us to where we are. As individuals, we are all capable of rational thought and debate, but in a group, we seem to be given licence to access a far more animalistic side of our natures, in which individual self-concern is given less status than the whim of the group. It is something which seems so far removed from modern society, and yet is so much a part of it. It is also something we see in the natural world, through herds, swarms, flocks, and plagues among others; in its use of soloist and orchestral mass the concerto presented itself as a particularly appropriate medium through which to explore this phenomenon musically. 

In view of the above my large-scale, one-movement Violin Concerto, written between September 2017 and July 2019, explores a wide range of interactions between soloist and orchestra as it alternates slow and fast sections. This results in the solo violin sometimes standing out from the general texture and on other occasions being absorbed into it. Both approaches can be heard in the first fast section where the soloist sometimes soars over the swarming orchestral sounds while at other times it draws the strings to its dance-like music.

Each fast section features the soloist interacting with orchestral music that is inspired by mass group animal behaviour. The first of these, which follows the slow introduction, was inspired by swarming bees. At the climax of this the music suddenly switches to shapes and patterns inspired by the murmurations of starlings. There then follows a substantial slow passage which leads to fast music inspired by a plague of locusts which, as before, gives way to a mumuration passage at the climax. The ensuing final slow section leads to a passage inspired by a cloud of bats, and the work ends with the solo violin quietly imitating the murmuration music on its own, something that is anticipated in the second of these sections.

In the slow music the orchestra often acts as more of a backdrop to the violin’s extended solos, although gestures from the soloist sometimes trigger a reaction from other instruments and vice versa. Many of these gestures are inspired by night-time insect sounds, and it is their interaction with the soloist which facilitates the transitions to the fast music.

There is a deliberate ambiguity in the title ‘Violin Concerto’, referring as it could to the soloist or any number of the orchestral violins. This is first explored in the opening where the soloist only gradually establishes itself during the first few sections. Initially it emerges from static chords and squirming textures only to be reabsorbed, but then it rises to compete with the other violins, both as a mass and then as individuals, finally winning out to establish itself as the solo violin.

The Violin Concerto was commissioned and funded by the BBC and premiered on 2 November 2019 at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Ben Gernon with Carolin Widdman solo violin. 

Philip Grange