As a dancing couple create beauty through unity, the musician and his instrument must also become one. Only through persistent tuning and balancing does beauty appear effortless. I experimented with the violin for two years, in 1979 and ’80—enough to develop a profound appreciation for that most difficult partner. In the end, that gesture—the torqued left arm and Michelangelesque Hand-of-God fingers, the shoulder-to-shoulder stretch across the back, the twist of the neck and grip of the jaw, came together as the first of this duo.

Each partner makes music.

The couple make the dance.