I wrote Unraveling as the title track for my upcoming CD, which features works for violin, to be performed by one player through the use of looped and pre-recorded musical material. Writing a piece for 17 violins seemed an ideal “COVID” project. I wanted to express isolation and longing for community, with one voice becoming many intermingling voices, together but always alone.

The movement begins with the introduction of a five-chord motif, in which lower and higher notes move outward in contrary motion. This motif returns in many guises: as featured melodic material, or as a longer-form framework for a somber and somewhat disjunct melody. As the lead violin floats above a churning and dispersed accompaniment, a quality of unrest builds toward a final climax. The original motif and the melodic material come back, this time enjoined and in parallel motion, and we return to the original melody as the work comes to a close.