quilts

Instrumentation: Violin & Piano
Duration: 9 minutes
Year: 2026

Audio Excerpt

Program Notes

When asked to write a piece for violin and piano inspired by the “works and life of Nikki Giovanni (1943-2024)”, I began a period of reading and research to settle on a theme. Ms. Giovanni was a distinguished professor of creative writing at Virginia Tech, but I had not known of Ms. Giovanni’s work before, and this commission was a perfect opportunity to take a deep dive into her rich and storied oeuvre. I was saddened to know that she had only passed a year prior to this commission and wondered what might have been like if I have been able to converse with her. Did we have common interests? What would she say about my piece and approach to her works? One could only speculate.

This period of research yielded many gems for my reading. I was particularly struck by her poetry and her ability to capture the spark of life through the mundane. I kept returning to her poem, “Quilts”.

Taking the title as my musical starting point, the piece begins with a running ostinato in the piano representing the weaving of threads. Simple harmonics grow and subside in the violin, representing the fading piece of cloth. As the pattern repeats and move out of sync and the piano’s repetitive gesture blossoms into something organic at section “A”, representing the second stanza whereupon the poet reminisce on the days when she “cover tables filled with food and laughter”. Modulations in the piano carry the violin line through various memories and states before building up to the first climax at rehearsal “B”, representing the mixture of sorrow and rage that goes through the mind of the poet as they mourn the loss of ability to ‘hold the hot and cold’.

As the violin climbs down from the high point, the piano enters with a similar gesture from the violin: a two-chord echo that sways back and forth. The poem progresses: “I wish for those first days When just woven I could keep water from seeping through.” The violin takes on a more active role in the second section, whereas the chords in the piano move in-and-out the tapestry drawn in the violin, representing the widening holes from the fabric and the memories of the poet.
The music gradually builds to the second high point at “C”, representing a resurgence of strength mirroring the section of the poem on “repelled stains”. Brooding harmonic changes then give to the final section of the piece at “D”, a retrospective glance back at the poet’s memories. The active textures in the piano finally relax, leaving held chords supporting a thinning violin line. Just like the structural thinning that occurs at the end of Ms. Giovanni’s poem, so the piece gradually fades out to nothing.

I am grateful to the 2025 Jessie S. Yee Memorial Commission for making this piece possible.