shadow breaking (for violin) - Digital (Not Printable)

PDF for solo violin (2020, revised July 2026) Duration: 5 minutes 30 seconds Composer Note At the beginning of the pandemic shutdown, Dan Flanagan asked me for a short violin solo for him to play as part of his Corona Quarantine Concerts, which he was recording before the backdrop of his extensive art collection. I asked if my piece could be paired with a specific painting and, when he agreed, I chose Shadow Breaking by Rachel Dwan, a gorgeous abstract work, entirely in grey-scale, that, for me, evokes the play of light in water. In the context of sheltering in place – and, in particular, sheltering in place with my mother, who was dying of cancer, and my father, who had advanced dementia – I felt Rachel’s painting spoke to the quiet, often solitary struggle to find light in periods of darkness, something we were all experiencing at that time, in different ways. — Nathaniel Stookey