< back to overview Repertoire & Opera Explorer
Kari Telstad Sundet - Reticence for solo violin (2020)
(b. March 26th 1987, Kristiansund)
First Performance:
Gimle (Bergen), Borealis Festival for Experimental Music
March 20th 2021
Ricardo Odriozola
Kari Telstad Sundet lives and works in Kristiansund. She holds a master degree from the Grieg Academy in Bergen, where she studied with the late Morten Eide Pedersen, after whose passing she received further guidance from Trond Lossius and Ricardo Odriozola. She also studied for a year with professor Pawel Lukaszewski in Warsaw.
Sundet's main focus has long been the visual nature of music and its potential for awakening memories and associations. Her work has a special focus on the electro-acoustic medium, but she has also written purely electronic works in 3D sound. She makes wide use of historic archive material and field recordings. Sundet has also written extensively for string quartet and her works for that instrumental combination have been performed by Odin Quartet, Siggi Quartet and Rosella Quartet. Her music has been performed at festivals such as Borealis, UNM, Bergen Assembly and Sound of Stockholm.
Her work "Spinlock Dreaming" for accordion, guitar and cello was nominated for the category "work of the year" in 2022 by the Norwegian Society of Composers.
The composer writes about Reticence:
The idea for the piece came through reflections around the concept "Aesthetics of
Reticence". The term is used by Peter Strickland referring to a polar
opposite to romanticism in film music, but is interpreted in my piece both as actual
musical inspiration and as a metaphor for something human.
The term is closely related to the statements of the Russian filmmaker Tarkovsky
when he claims that in art something must always remain secret, and that part of its
indescribability hovers in the "air" that lies between all that is comprehensible.
In the piece "Reticence", the idea is played out as imaginary parts of a conversation:
the deepest meaning may reside in what is left out or remains secret.
Reticence is written in the manner of a fantasy. Its two outer sections have a pensive character while the gradually evolving middle section is characterized by increasing activity.
Insofar as there is a conversation taking place - as Sundet states – it seems to be between two characters of somewhat morose disposition. The one – speaking on the higher register – is rather melancholic while the other – in the lower register – seems more self-assured; perhaps the older and wiser of the two, but not necessarily supportive.
The crux of the work appears to be the note C sharp (sometimes D flat) with its uneasy tritone relationship to G and its ambivalent proximity to both D (assured) and C (reticent).
By measure 80 the melancholic character makes a first attempt to find its feet, shaking loose of his-her denying counterpart. This new independence begins to develop for real from measure 93: our hero-heroine tries their luck in different, swiftly shifting key centres. He (excuse the gendered language) looks back to his former insecurity and melancholy between mm. 108 and 120, as if homesick for the nest he purposely abandoned. From m. 121 the search continues, soon encountering the first real obstacles in mm. 128, 130 and 133. The character finds his balance again and returns to a now bolder embracing of multiple key centres in m. 143 ("con brio") leading to the giddy climax of the piece on mm.146-148 after which giddiness becomes sudden and forceful disorientation ("touch of madness", m.149). After getting stuck in a corner (mm. 153-156) our emboldened wanderer spirals down into a bottomless abyss, finding himself back in the scene from the beginning of the piece. Has it all been a dream or are we dealing with a prodigal son allegory? In any case, the stern, older character from the beginning is back, unchanged in his views. However, it seems that, although externally things have not gone well for the returning melancholic character, his wild excursion has not been in vain. Sundet's use of keys is a subtle clue as to the progression – or lack thereof – of the two characters. For the "older" one, G minor is "the truth" and he sees the Lydian C sharp as "trouble": something to be avoided; the big bad world out there. The "younger" character does make an impassioned case for D minor – a key where C sharp is a natural, leading tone – in mm. 54-66. It falls, naturally, on deaf ears. However, upon his return, and while recovering from his excesses, the formerly melancholic character makes his first assured D minor statement in m. 169, and with something of a folk-like flair. And again – in spite of the disapproving head-shaking from the other character – in mm. 175-176 and 182. The returning character defiantly introduces his own tritone – G sharp – in their newfound D minor security as if to say "I am not, unlike you, afraid of conflict and trials" (mm. 176 and 185). The "troublesome" C sharp ultimately leads to D, establishing D minor as the final key (m. 219), in an atmosphere of quiet acceptance.
All of the above is my personal interpretation of the meaning behind the notes. My attempt at elucidating in the work what Sundet calls 'a metaphor for something human'.
Naturally, each player is free to find his or her own meaning and understanding of the music.
I commissioned Reticence for a special concert of mine during the Borealis Festival in March 2021. A video of that first performance can be watched on YouTube. The work was financed by the Morten Eide Pedersen memorial fund.
About this edition
I have chosen to present the work in two forms: one as the composer wrote it and another with fingering and bowing suggestions of mine. Being the player who commissioned and premiered the piece, I consider that it may be of interest to present my view of the music and its realization on the violin. Naturally, each player will find his or her own way into the music and understand it individually, resulting in greatly differing choices of bowings and fingerings – as it should be. The unedited "composer's version" will enable you to develop your personal interpretation.
Ricardo Odriozola, 28 March 2023
German Preface not available ...
< back to overview Repertoire & Opera Explorer