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.

E ach partner makes music.

The couple make the dance.