Sinews (2008) by Adam Roberts
for violin
West Coast premiere; 2010 Earplay Donald Aird Composers Competition winner

Sinews, for solo violin, was commissioned by and is dedicated with love to Gabriela Díaz. While composing this piece, I was particularly attracted to the physical associations with the world "sinew," as in "tendon". This association transformed me into the composer as sculptor, as I imagined myself working a resistant material into a variety of textures, focusing on the tactile nature of the material. The form is a result of this physical engagement, of pulling, pushing, stretching, resting, of keeping my hands in the dirt all the while.