Casken, John: Shadowed Pieces

for violin and piano

These six short pieces might more readily be described as fantasies, each with its own sound-world but linked by shared material. The mood of each of these short movements is guided by an imaginary landscape, one shadowed by the blackened tree, a far-away song, shadows past, a quickening moon, forgotten voices, and by the harrowed land. The title of the last movement plays on the word harrow, something that is used to break up the soil, but also bringing with it suggestions of a land both pained and wounded.