The piano score and violin part to John Woolrich’s Im Ruhigen Tal
Im Ruhigen Tal is an 8-minute piece for violin and piano. The title of the 1993 work – ‘...in the silent valley…’ – is taken from Beethoven’s song cycle An die ferne Geliebte, which sets the poetry of Alois Jeitteles. The piece’s 8 sections run without a break, alternating reflective and more animated, rhythmic moods. Im Ruhigen Tal quotes Woolrich’s 1992 Clarinet Trio A Farewell, and echoes music by Schumann and Beethoven. It concludes with two chorales and a microscopic envoy as coda.