Oracle Reach/Orakelreichweite for solo viola

(2018)

As a violist (and composer) who has played solo, chamber and orchestra music, I feel that the viola parts in much of this repertoire has the potential to take on the role of an oracle of sorts: A keeper of secret knowledge and understanding about the nature of the piece as a whole. One purpose of the violist oracle in the music is to safeguard these secrets. The player acts as observer, an insider and outcast, a conduit that connects everything together by operating from within. Only on special occasion does violist as oracle unleash a fractured portion of wisdom outward. The violist reaches both outward and inward, toward the future and into the past by being transformed through the music in the present. Oracle Reach was composed in late 2018 in San Francisco, CA and Peterborough, NH. It was commissioned for the 2019 Max Rostal Viola Competition, and is dedicated to violist and friend Hartmut Rohde with great warmth and admiration. The piece is approximately ten minutes in length.

 

As a violist (and composer) who has played solo, chamber and orchestra music, I feel that the viola parts in much of this repertoire has the potential to take on the role of an oracle of sorts: A keeper of secret knowledge and understanding about the nature of the piece as a whole.