No Escaping the Start is a concise work lasting around four and a half minutes that moves in spurts of energy (sometimes consisting of fairly aggressive discourse) offset against brief episodes of sparser, sometimes quieter, more introspective music. This piece was immediately preceded by a work for solo guitar (my third), which takes advantage of the guitar’s open strings (tuned in perfect fourths, except for the third to second strings). That work greatly influenced the creation of the source material for the present work, with the opening gesture in ascending perfect fourths spread over the violin’s four strings in middle register, immediately progressing to exploitation of the instrument’s open strings tuned a perfect fifth apart. In a sense, the instant piece makes a nod to, and grows out of, the guitar work.

The source material of this piece is set out in the first several measures, and, as the work progresses, the initial material is continually mined, extended and elaborated; hence, the title “No Escaping the Start.” By interweaving different strands of music extending over the entire range of the instrument, highlighted through rapid alternation of arco and pizzicato, and loud and soft dynamics, and employing harmonics and quarter tones, I sought to give the effect of two violinists in conversation.

A version of this work also exists for solo viola.