String Quartet No. 3
Work Overview
Instrumentation: violin, viola, cello
Commission: 11th Banff International String Quartet Competition. Co-commissioned by The Banff Centre and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Premiere: August 26 to September 1, 2013, Banff, AB, Canada
Duration: approx. 10 minutes
Program Note
This work revolves around a chant that is first realized in full about a minute into the piece. Evoking non-Western song, the chant is announced by the entire quartet, highly ornamented, powerful, and tuned to suggest the microtonal tendencies found in many non-Western scales. My recent reflections on faith and spirituality come to life in this quartet as a world of varied prayers, sometimes turbulent, sometimes passionate, sung to oneself or among a crowd.
Hushed, ambiguous chords start the piece and then crescendo and surge into fast wispy harmonics. The harmonics gradually morph and descend into immense arpeggiated chords euphorically hailing the arrival of the main melody. The chant undergoes a series of transformations, from heterophonic passages in which the quartet acts as four disparate voices, at times wailing and intense; through trilled versions of the melody with virtuosic accompaniments; and finally into a chaconne, a four note repeated harmonic figure that allows for fluid, quasi-improvisational, anguished renditions of the chant. The chaconne is repeatedly interrupted, at first nostalgically, then more and more abruptly, by material that recalls former passages. The work ends quietly with harmonics and a sense of uncertainty lingering in the air.
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Errata List
Artists are welcome to contribute any errors or notes for this work on our collaborative errata list.
Full Score Preview
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