#3641: Music for Bowed Strings

For this New Sounds, listen to works for violin, cello, and the 10-stringed Hardanger d’Amore fiddle. There’s brand new music from Irish cellist Kate Ellis, (who is also Artistic Director of the Crash Ensemble,) from her solo record, “Jump,” a collection of new music for solo cello and electronics by 5 Irish composers. Listen also to an atmospheric mix of cello and voice from the Icelandic cellist/composer/singer Hildur Guðnadóttir. One of the tunes features the bass player Skúli Sverrisson, Guðnadóttir’s eerie whisper, and a fretted cello, resonated through two grand pianos, for a hypnotic thrum, that skirts a line between gentle menace and blissful escape.

Then, hear a duo record from Caoimhin O Raghallaigh (of The Gloaming) and Dan Trueman (founder of Princeton Laptop Orchestra), which stretches and recombines the DNA of Norwegian folk and Irish trad fiddling on a 10-stringed instrument, the Hardanger d’Amore. Plus, fiddle music from composer, sound engineer and producer Adrian Hart, based in Ireland. 

PROGRAM #3641, Music for Bowed Strings (First aired on 9/23/2014)