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New Music Reviews: Michael Kimber
by Kenneth Martinson

La Colombe (The Dove) (2006) for viola section, two pianos, second violins, and basses.

Difficulty: Level 2/3
Duration: 3 minutes
Dedication: West High School Orchestra (Iowa City, IA), Wayne Thelander, director

By Michael Kimber (b. 1945)

“The Dove” is truly original in concept in that it was composed to be an addition to Camille Saint-Saëns’s The Carnival of the Animals, which inexplicably features each of the string instruments except the violas. The work was written at the request of Iowa City’s West High School Orchestra director Wayne Thelander so that his viola students could be featured in his orchestra’s performance of the Saint-Saëns. Kimber chose the dove to represent the viola section because, as Kimber states, “most of the [violists] I have known…are generally peace-loving beings.”

The movement certainly is peaceful and calming. It is fairly easy to play, never going higher than the G in third position on the A string. It is in a moderate triple meter, and the viola line has a long melodic “soaring” quality, like a flying dove, above a foundation of the rolling accompaniment of the two pianos, the second violin tremolos, and the grounded bass line. While it reminded me slightly in character of the viola movement of Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, it actually sounds convincingly like Saint-Saëns, so much so that I am sure the average concertgoer would have no idea that this movement was by another composer if this fact were not revealed in the program. “The Dove” is a truly delightful and curious work that I highly recommend looking at, either in its original setting or in Kimber’s arrangement for solo viola and piano.

Reflection (2001) for three-part viola ensemble

Difficulty: Level 4
Duration: 5-1/2 minutes
Dedication: In memory of Francis Bundra (1927-2000)
Premiere: Interlochen Arts Academy, June 30, 2001

By Michael Kimber (b. 1945)

A wonderfully attractive work written for large viola ensemble in three parts, Reflection is probably the most serious, poignant work I have encountered for viola ensemble. The mood is somewhat reminiscent of Barber’s Adagio for Strings, beginning softly in the lower register. Like the Barber, this too has an “arch-form” contour, beginning and ending softly with a more intense section roughly two-thirds of the way through the work. The intense middle section is much more intentionally subdued in this work than the Barber, undoubtedly because of the elegiac qualities and it being a remembrance of Bundra, the beloved teacher of many violists at Interlochen and at the University of Michigan. I did also hear some beautiful, hopeful moments reminiscent of some of the slow movements of the Dvorák Serenade for Strings. I enjoyed the freedom with which Kimber employs the crossing of voices, especially between violas one and two, which share the melodic lines in the treble register in an intermingled manner. The ending features all three viola parts alternating major triads on F and B (the initials of Francis Bundra) as they rise to the upper register of the viola, portraying climbing up to the heavens; then the piece ends refreshingly with a somber low register triad which dissipates into nothingness.

Evocations (2005) for viola and string orchestra

Difficulty: Level 6
Duration: 18 minutes
Commission: Iowa City Community String Orchestra, Carey H. Bostian II, conductor
Premiere: Christine Rutledge, violist, and the ICCSO, April 2, 2006

By Michael Kimber (b. 1945)

This work is a welcome addition to the genre of viola solo works with string orchestra accompaniment (only a few come to immediately to mind: the TelemannViola Concerto, Hindemith’s Trauermusik, the Reger Suite for Viola and Strings in G Minor(orchestrated by Victor Poltoratsky), Britten’s Lachrymae, and Schnittke’s Monologue). In the first movement, Rhapsodically, I noticed many Bartok-like elements: the folk melody heard in the opening which is then imitated in the violins, his use of counterpoint, and imitative inversions of the melodic line. The driving rhythm of the 6/8 meter also reminded me a little bit of the Piston Viola Concerto and very slightly of Milhaud’s Concertino d’été.  The work is wonderfully virtuosic with some challenging double-stop passages that look fun. I really enjoyed the section in the middle of the work with the familiar folk tune in the violins and the viola “chugging” away at the fast notes above the melody. I also liked the clever usage of the viola in the lower range and Kimber’s careful orchestration so that the viola can always be heard. The composition of this work is very refined. It is written idiomatically for the instrument in a manner that is practical for the soloist always to be prominent.

The second movement, Dreamily, in a slow 5/8 meter, includes quintuplets and other rhythms that help to give the movement a free and almost “through-composed” feel. The harmonies change often on the bar lines, helping to define the meter. This movement, lyrical throughout, also includes a section where the soloist plays a fast moving thirty-second note line that is juxtaposed against the other strings. This thirty-second note line moves in a sweeping manner starting high at the beginning of the first measure and sweeping down low at the beginning of the second measure, continuing this high-low sweep for about six bars, very much like the solo viola line in the third movement of the Walton Viola Concerto, the part with the quintuplets that move in the same fashion.

The last movement, Driving, is a perpetuum mobile with exclusively sixteenth note sextuplets in the solo viola line, very much like the third movement of the Barber Violin Concerto, especially in the double stop and harmonic E usage parts. This movement really cooks along and sounds very fun to play. Again the string accompaniment is very transparent on the whole, often times written in staccato fashion. The entire work strikes me as being attainable for the average listener, and the harmonic language is always coherent and rarely discordant. I highly recommend that violists looking to expand their concerto literature take a look at this work, and I hope it gains enough recognition to garner more performances in the future.

All three of these works are available through the composer at:

Michael Kimber
12 N. Mount Vernon Drive
Iowa City, IA 52245
(319) 339-7232
e-mail: kimbermichael@qwest.net
web: http://members.tripod.com/~m_kimber

Key to the Difficulty level chart:
1 Very Easy
2 Somewhat Easy
3 Intermediate
4 Somewhat Difficult
5 Difficult
6 Very Difficult

Please send all scores for review consideration to:

Kenneth Martinson
2751 SE 24th Place
Gainesville, FL 32641