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If I were a writer or a painter, I would express myself in words or images. But seeing as I am neither, I trust that music on its own has the potential to resound in meaningful ways. Quartet No.1 is both purely abstract and sonically concrete. It does not aim to represent a story nor evoke a pre-determined external source of inspiration, yet because the compositional process stems from close (some might say microscopic) interactions with actual sound files and improvisations in a digital audio workstation, the music is in fact very grounded in an audible reality.
Though some composers fear the medium of the string quartet due to its historical weight or supposed timbral homogeneity, I see in it both an invitation to build upon a rich legacy, and an opportunity to explore an enormously varied sound palette for contemporary experimentation. This piece requires virtuosic shifts between quickly contrasting modes of expression, while also demanding the physical internalization of a dense thicket of activity.
A close listening will reveal recurring motives, like the swelling-sliding “warp” chord heard at the beginning, as well as returning textures, which range from wonky unisons to pointillistic reverse sounds, percussive strumming to squeaky insectile chatter, zips, squeals, ricochets, and lightening-speed hocketing glissandi. Escaping the agitation and frenzy are moments of melodic beauty, microtonal introspection, and a delicate fabric of time-suspending harmonics.
The challenge thus lies for the interpreters to find an organic flow and personal reading on the relationship between these constant changes, and to effectively play with the listener’s sense of expectation – recollecting moments we have already heard, leading us on to what is just around the corner, and revealing how this relates to our experience of the present.
-ZDC
Co-commissioned by the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, in partnership with The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Americas Society. Premiered September 2nd, 2016, by the 10 finalist groups at the Banff International String Quartet Competition
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