I wrote Not Shy while I was a composition fellow at Tanglewood as part of their annual three-day “Piece-a-Day” project. Not Shy is the third and final piece in the series. It was composed in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on 16 July 2010.
Not Shy relies on the gestures and intonation of theatrical dialogues. Thinking about the violin and bass as two people, I treated the two as a romantic couple, cooing, arguing, fighting and then making up.