Uncle Hokum’s Fiddle for TWO violins
for two solo violins
Instrumentation
2 violins
What’s more fun than Uncle Hokum’s Fiddle for solo violin? How about Uncle Hokum for TWO violins? Goodness Gracious Me! After Karen Bentley Pollick asked for this version of my fun, flashy, fantastic, fiery fiddle piece I set about adding a second violin part as the “rhythm section” to the existing solo part. I also did a small rewrite in the slow section (which is reflected in the solo version, it’s now “version 2.0”). The second violin part in Uncle Hokum2 is full of chopping and other goodness. So now you have a choice: one violin, or two? Shaken, not stirred?
The piece was premiered by violinists Karen Bentley Pollick and Philip Brezina at Virtuosos De Camara’s Fiddlefest on February 26, 2023.
Program Note
Uncle Hokum’ s Fiddle is a fun, virtuosic solo violin “fiddle” piece with a Blue Grass flavor – think “Wieniawski meets Orange Blossom Special!” – commissioned for the 2013 Irving M. Klein International String Competition. The title comes from two main sources. The word “hokum,” which basically means nonsense, bunk, or something silly, and also used in theater to describe some sort of stage gimmickry designed to elicit a crowd pleasing response from a jaded audience. The second source is hokum, or “double shuffle” bowing, as heard in country fiddling pieces such as Orange Blossom Special. In 2022 Karen Bentley Pollick asked for a 2 violin version for her Virtuosos De Camara’s Fiddlefest (Karen Bentley Pollick and Philip Brezina, violins) which they premiered on February 26, 2023.
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