Spanish-German composer Maria de Alvear has worked in a wide variety of contexts; she has studied with
Mauricio Kagel in Cologne, has studied shamanistic traditions with the Cherokee, and is an enthusiast of the work of visual artist and sometime composer Joseph Beuys. De Alvear first came into contact with Canadian new music pianist
Eve Egoyan in 1996 when the latter premiered de Alvear's large-scale piano diptych De puro amor. Mode's Asking consists of a single-movement piano piece 53 minutes in duration; the work was a commission from
Egoyan, recorded in Toronto in 2003. The texture of Asking is very spare; mostly single notes and hints of chords widely separated in space but with just enough of an invisible thread of continuity to hint at a sense of melodic thoroughgoing that lasts for the whole work. There is the occasional loud group of notes, but the piece is mostly quiet, somewhat reserved in mood, and wandering, thoughtful, and expansive. If one were to relate the work's title to the content, you could say that it's like wanting to ask a question, but, being too shy or apprehensive to say the words, the voice retreats inward on an internal quest for the answer.
Egoyan has credited de Alvear with changing her own approach to interpretation at the piano; it is not often that a composer is able to exercise such influence over a performer, especially such a talented and strong-willed artist as
Egoyan. Her handling of de Alvear's sketchy score materials, which leaves many options open to the interpreter, provides an unquestionable sense of overall shape to this music, and tempers the unspoken elements of de Alvear into an emotionally charged impressionistic space. While the mood of Asking is somewhat tense, its low-key, understated, and protracted lyricism is definitely something that lends itself to quiet reflection or late-night reading. Beyond that, Asking is also a work that expands the dynamic of the relationship between composer and interpreter beyond its usual compass.