Diabolus is a one-minute long piece for unaccompanied violin, written for Conway Kuo’s 15 Minutes of Fame concert in 2011.
It explores the concept of a single piece of music emerging from three simple lines, one of which is an ostinato based on the interval of the tritone, the diabolus in musica, hence the title. I wrote it as a sort of an exercise in composing for a single-line instrument – I’ve had an idea for a piece for unaccompanied cello floating about for some time now, but wasn’t sure how to start, so the three-lines-into-one concept I’ve explored in Diabolus was one way to approach that problem.
I’ve written two articles about the creation of this work which you can read on my blog:
- Approaching a single line from three directions (21 February 2011)
- Refining a single line: Diabolus for solo violin, part 2 (18 May 2011)