Q: What’s the only kind of music a violin is good for?
A: Camp Fire Music
OK…. I jest. The world has been inundated with solo violin works ranging from every Suzuki student playing Twinkle Twinkle up to stunning performances at Carnegie Hall. Recently the violin has made appearances in the performance art world specifically in the performance of Joshua Bell in a Washington Subway Station.
Hannah Waseleski has written a new sonata for violin…… and hammer. The concept here is to take a recording of the violin playing Bach’s Partita in D minor and mash it up with a sounds of the violin getting smashed by the hammer, and slides of the resulting shards. I have to admit, normally I view this genre of art (performance, shock, “social statement” art) as being reserved for uneducated oafs who try to shortcut a formal education or proper idea with a quick solution designed to get attention due to its provocative nature; however, I really love this piece. The artist statement yields a clever insight and the video kept me captivated. Now if we could only get every violin student to learn this piece…
Mark Busse (March 1st, 2008)
Oh god, I have to admit this make me cringe and die a little inside. I suppose you can argue this is indeed art, but it causes such angst to see one form of art be destroyed to create another. And it rather ruins the song, don’t you think?