Roger Zahab - Evening on 57th Street

Evening on 57th Street
Date Completed:	September 19, 2014
Duration:	about 10 minutes
Instrumentation:	solo violin and string orchestra
First Performance:	October 19, 2014, RZ, violin, Music on the Edge Chamber Orchestra, Robert Frankenberry, conducting, Bellefield Hall Auditorium, University of Pittsburgh listen to the premiere performance here
Program Notes:	Evening on 57th Street for solo violin and string orchestra was inspired by birthday greetings from my friend Ralph Jackson last January. I used to visit Ralph at BMI down the street from my apartment at 57th and 10th, and he pointed out that I was turning 57, was born in 1957, and I had lived on 57th Street in New York City - for some 7 years. I also have in mind the way one can describe a state of mind - as in "living on Easy Street" - and have connected these dimensions into an entelechron portal of several strands: a pair of evening harmonies that contrast star-light with city lights, and (derived from those harmonies) a series of melodies which are related to one other in various ways. There is a gradual transformation of personality from a Phrygian collection to another, more ardent one, at the sign of Dorian's Way -an alley off 57th Street (perhaps it was near Sutton Place - or it could have been beyond 11th Avenue, I can no longer remember...). R.Z.