Publisher: Onibatan Music. This is a set of compact pieces for either violin or cello and piano commissioned by the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival. As its title suggests, the work is a palindrome. More precisely each piece is a palindrome, in the sense that if one starts in the middle of each piece, the notes and rhythms are the same read either forwards or backwards. This concept of palindromic composition was made famous by J.S. Bach, although there are examples from before Bach (Machaut) and after Bach (Haydn, Mozart and Webern). The titles of the pieces follow, with a ‘v’ indicating a violin version and a ‘c’ indicating a cello version. no lemon, no melon can be played either as a complete set or as a subset of the musicians’ choosing. Despite the rigorous palindromic nature of each piece internally, the order of pieces as performed has not been designated by the composer. Go figure…
a dog, a panic in a pagoda (c)
engage le jeu que je le gagne (c)
borrow or rob (v, c)
not New York, Roy went on (v, c)
no lemon, no melon (v, c)
O stone, be not so (c)
人人为我，我为人人 (v, c)
pull up if I pull up (v, c)
never odd or even (v, c)
Do geese see God? (v, c)
o tra poco parto (v, c)
Paganini, din in a gap (v, c)
recording coming soon…