I first became acquainted with Claudia Watson in 1985 or 1986. She had already become the violinist of choice for new music at the University of Illinois, and my memory is that the first of the many times I exploited her extraordinary intelligence and abilities was in the concert I put together for performances in St. Louis at the convention of what was then called ASUC. Subsequently, among many always rewarding interactions, her participation in the extended rehearsals and performance of Pierrot Lunaire stands out. In June 1990, I wrote what I later called “both a gift to and an etude for” Claudia; this was For Violin. In early 1991 I submitted the score to the Indiana State University Festival committee for consideration; they accepted the piece, and thus the first performance was given by Claudia in Terre Haute on September 12, 1991. I was not in attendance; this was my wife’s internship year, and we were both in Charlottesville, VA. I may, however, have come back for two October performances that Claudia gave at the University of Illinois.
Thereafter the piece was played by Roger Zahab in 1993, twice (the second was at the SCI convention in Cleveland); by Claudia at CalArts in a gorgeous performance which was fortunately recorded and is available on SoundCloud; and by Anna Cleworth in 2000 at the University of Illinois. Claudia also made a studio recording in 1995, technically but not artistically superior to the California recording a year before.
In program notes I describe For Violin as “deliberately unsystematic,” a phrase that meant more then than today. But it is true that I simply started writing and finished when I deemed the composition complete. Some revisions were made, of course, but there was no attempt to fit the music to a pre-existing scheme. I worked closely with Claudia to ensure that the notation was practical and specific; the harmonics, in particular, which might seem simpler if taken towards the bridge, are calculated to make phrases and shapes possible that would otherwise be obscured by athletic shifts of position.