Melia Watras

MELIA WATRAS: LIQUID VOICES
for violin and viola (2013)

World Premiere: Michael Jinsoo Lim, violin; Melia Watras, viola; January 13, 2014, Seattle, WA

European Premiere: Michael Jinsoo Lim, violin; Melia Watras, viola; August 24, 2014, Holte, Denmark

Program Notes:
Liquid Voices, written in 2013, takes its inspiration from Virginia Woolf’s short story, The Fascination of the Pool. Woolf has been a profound, influential and special author to me. Her experimental nature and ever-changing writing style make her elusive. She was lyrical, poetic and forward thinking.

I was taken with the story’s fluidity, imagery and depth, which helped shape the structure and basic concept for my piece: voices floating on top of each other. The pitch centers of Liquid Voices are taken from the harmonic series played by the violin in the first few measures of the work.

—Melia Watras