Niels Rosing-Schow

Alliage II

Programme note: Alloy II for Viola and Classical Accordion. The two instruments of this duo are very different in appearance, and in the way of playing as well as tone production. At first glance this might call for a music, which brings out these differences in the nature of the instruments, distributing distinct, even contrasting, musical roles to the two players, such as melody versus accompaniment. But I refrain from this obvious 'casting' of the instruments, since I have always been fascinated by the less evident, by transitions and gradual displacement, by the intangible places between one and the other. I search for this 'terrain vague' of fruitfull incertainty and permanent genesis. To arrive here, I have in this piece written a music, which makes hidden relations and unexplored sonorous paths come forward between the sound worlds of the two instruments. Bringing together the musical substances, I look for something deeper than just common sounds: a fresh musical place. And the lively and bright sound world that emerges form this instrumental and textural 'in-between' I associate to alloys, in particular the silvery amalgamations of mercury. The work was commisioned by Andreas Borregaard and composed with support from The Danish Arts Foundation. It is dedicated to the duo Inviolata. Niels Rosing-Schow