George Lewis

The Mangle of Practice

The Mangle of Practice by George Lewis borrows its title from a work of scientific history and philosophy by Andrew Pickering, to whom this piece is dedicated, and who imagines many constraints on human agency as being real-time interactions between human endeavour and non-human forces rather than as fixed limitations. This 12-minute work for violin and piano explores this idea through a series of spectacular musical gestures, including unpredictable extremes of rhythm, range and performance technique. Commissioned by the Library of Congress's Earl McKim Fund, the piece was composed for a 2014 premiere at the library by Ensemble Dal Niente's Minghuan Xu and Winston Choi. This piano score and violin part, available for purchase, includes performance notes in English.