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Programme Note

Composer note:
String Force (2010) was commissioned by the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis for the 2010 Competition and underwritten by the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation in honor of the children and families of Christel House. It is dedicated with great affection to the violinist Jaime Laredo.

The 7-minute work was an attempt at writing a challenging piece for violin.

When I heard 16 very good semi-finalists from around the world play this piece (without any rehearsal of any kind with me), I was dumbstruck at what was working and what was not.

I changed several things after that and learned quite a bit about the extremes of tempo and register of the violin. (I want to thank Ida and Ani Kavafian and Maria Bachmann for their advice in writing this piece.)

— Joan Tower