Instrumentation: solo violin
Commissioned for: Jennifer Koh as part of "Shared Madness," with the generous support of Justus Schlichting (No. 1).
First Performance: No. 1 premiered as part of "Shared Madness" at National Sawdust, during the New York Philharmonic's 2016 Biennial, May 31, 2016. No. 2 premiered by Yuki Numata Resnick, violin on November 11, 2016, at National Sawdust.
Duration: No. 1 (“Dramatis Personae”): 4 min.
No. 2: 5 min.
Character Studies comprises two movements for solo violin, written in 2016, for Jennifer Koh and Yuki Numata Resnick, respectively. In Dramatis Personae, the linear writing introduces a revolving door of alternating personalities, impatiently waiting their turns to interject. The swiftly contrasting and unprepared shifts in character take inspiration from the “bianlian” (face-changing) tradition in Sichuan Opera, in which an actor changes masks and characters so rapidly that it resembles a magic trick. The second movement unfolds in two parts: a lyrical, improvisatory melody, and broken arpeggios with interruptions, occasionally detouring back into the melodic character of the opening.
Anthony Cheung
Live recording by Yuki Numata Resnick, with score:
Online performance by Miranda Cuckson for New Music Miami, July 2020:
“The two-movement “Character Studies” balances frantic switching between lines and style, as if [Miranda] Cuckson were an actor playing multiple roles onstage in fast secession, with a hothouse flower of a monologue—the sort that is so engrossing that it makes time in the theater stand still, but so delicate in its effect that it seems to dissipate into the ether immediately after the final words are spoken. There may have been one performance or one actor that inspired this work, but the ambiguity Cheung leaves in its description gives us space to make our own connections.”