Body Language: Three Folk Dances

PROGRAM NOTE

I first met Johnny Gandelsman sometime in 2003 when we were both playing with the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble. At the risk of getting in trouble for airing dirty laundry in a program note, I feel it’s worth mentioning that our friendship did not exactly begin on the right foot: I was tremendously under-qualified to be playing the Schumann Piano Quintet (to which Morris had choreographed his masterpiece, V) and Johnny was rightfully scratching his head as to what I was doing amidst much more seasoned chamber musicians. But some years later, I invited his quartet, Brooklyn Rider, to appear on my Carnegie Hall recital debut, and a lasting friendship began to take shape. Over the years since, my admiration for Johnny’s singular musicianship and incredible humanity has only grown. It is with great pleasure that I offer this piece as a token of my deep admiration for his artistry.

Body Language: Three Folk Dances for Solo Violin, co-commissioned by the Vail Dance Festival, was written with movement in mind, which gives rise to the motoric sense in two of the three pieces. The first is a paraphrase of a song of mine, “We Are the Saints,” which appeared on my album Magnificent Bird. The second dance is in a ternary form, a glacial A section contrasted with an effervescent B section. Finally, the third is a gigue (or jig), inspired by Johnny’s crystalline playing of Bach, which is always infused with a rarified rhythmic vitality: swung, but not too much, with a dry wit that cannot conceal the tenderness simmering beneath the surface. These pieces are dedicated with love and gratitude to Johnny Gandelsman.

— Gabriel Kahane, 2024

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Body Language - I

Body Language - II

Body Language - III

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