Matthew Lam．Composer

Duration: 4’ 

Written for CUHK Ensemble in Residence Concert II 2020/21

Online Premiere:

CUHK Ensemble-in-Residence 2020-2021 Concert II, CUHK Music youtube channel. 

Performed by Yip-Wai Chow and Francis Chik (Cong Quartet). 

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Program notes:

Antithesis means the opposition between two things or persons. Composing in mind as a sequel from my previous piece ‘Acrimonies’, which depicts an acrimonious relation and a failed dialogue within a group of people, in this piece, I intend to depict the confrontation between two people in this piece. In general, the dark, vigorous, and forceful timbre together with the call and response nature between the two violins mimic a verbal conflict between the two. I used rhythm and timbre to further signify the confrontation: at most times, the two violins do not play together, while starting in the second section, the two violins would have extremely opposing timbre, one featuring harmonics (and harmonic trill), with the other features excessive bow pressure.