Christopher Wendell JONES: "thunder shakes the earth, mountains bind the sky" for two violins (2019)

New Music for Strings Festival 2021 - online performance streamed on August 15, 2021. www.newmusicforstrings.org
Patrick Yim, violin (patrickyimviolin.com)
Ooi Her Yong, violin
Composer Christopher Wendell Jones: "The Yijing (or I-Ching) is an ancient Classic text often associated with Confucianism and other systems of belief. Central to the Yijing is the idea that all aspects of the world (humanity, nature, the cosmos) are organically linked through a perpetually renewing, self-generating process of change.
thunder shakes the earth, mountains bind the sky focuses on two symmetrically opposed hexagrams from the Yijing, (shake) and (bound), as central, generative images for the music. Thunder/shaking (transient, unstable) vs. mountains/binding (stable, eternal), as well as Earth (enduring, below) and sky (mutable, above). The inherent reflection of the images provides impetus for the initial musical oppositions in the piece. Music in two states is presented at the outset of the piece in the very slow/high 1st violin and the mercurial/low 2nd violin. Forces of change applied to both types of music force each to become more like the other in some fashion, eventually revealing that they are both part of the same cycle of transformation. Many thanks to Patrick Yim and Yinbin Qian for proposing and premiering this piece. - Christopher Wendell Jones"
This work was commissioned by violinist Patrick Yim.
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Christopher Wendell Jones is a composer of intricately designed music that explores issues of identity, memory and time in distinctive, unconventional ways. Christopher has presented his music in performances and lectures nationally and internationally at venues including the Darmstadt Ferienkurse in Germany, the Ictus International Composition Seminar in Brussels, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, Merkin Hall in New York and the Milwaukee Art Museum. He has worked with a broad range of ensembles and soloists such as the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the Callithumpian Consort, the sfSoundGroup, guitarist, Magnus Andersson, violinists, Janet Sung and Mark Menzies, pianist, Ann Yi and flautist, Lisa Cella. Among his honors are commissions from the Koussevitzky Foundation, three commissions from the American Composers Forum, and a Cohn Fellowship to attend the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, CA.
Also an active pianist and conductor, Christopher has a strong affinity for experimental and avant-garde music. He has given numerous premieres and has worked with composers such as Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Julio Estrada, Helmut Lachenmann, and Stefano Scodanibbio. He merges his interests in composition, performance and improvisation as a member of the innovative Bay Area new music group, sfSound.
Currently residing in Chicago, Christopher joined the music faculty at DePaul University as Assistant Professor of Musicianship and Composition in 2011. As a long-time resident of San Francisco, he previously taught composition and music theory at Stanford, San Francisco State, and San José State Universities, and worked extensively with young composers at Lowell High School in San Francisco through a Composer-in-the-Schools residency sponsored by the American Composers Forum. He completed a doctorate in composition at Stanford University, studying principally with Brian Ferneyhough and Jonathan Harvey. He also earned degrees in composition from the University of Calgary, and piano from Indiana University and the New England Conservatory.