MELIA WATRAS: DOPPELGÄNGER DANCES
for violin solo (2017)
World Premiere: Michael Jinsoo Lim, violin; March 28, 2018, Seattle, WA
Duration: 14:38
Program Notes:
Doppelgänger Dances explores aspects of doubles. I’ve long had a fascination with doppelgänger stories (those written by Dostoevsky, Gogol, and Poe in particular): the conflicted soul, the intertwined dance of good and evil, questioned reality; and the musical use of the double: a variation, usually twice as fast as the original movement, with notable practitioners such as Bach, Handel and Biber, among many others.
In my piece, I play with the idea of musical doubles, creating variations on thematic material quoted from my earlier composition, William Wilson, which includes text and takes its title from Edgar Allan Poe’s doppelgänger tale.
Doppelgänger Dances was written for my better half, violinist Michael Jinsoo Lim.
—Melia Watras
Violinist Michael Jinsoo Lim performs the world premiere of Melia Watras's Doppelgänger Dances for violin solo (2017). Recorded live at Meany Theater, University of Washington, Seattle, WA on March 28, 2018. Videography by Jerry Morrison.