String Quartet No. 5: “Spiraling"

Recording - To listen to the premiere, please email Vivian for access to a private recording.

Work Overview

Instrumentation: violin, viola, cello
Commission: Lafayette String Quartet through the B K Weigel Fund
Premiere: Lafayette String Quartet, February 11, 2022, University of Victoria, British Columbia
Duration: 13.5 minutes

Program Note

String Quartet No. 5 “Spiraling” was written as a reflection on the tumultuous year that was 2021. With a relentless series of local and international incidents, including the storming of the Capitol, widening political divisions, and culture wars; forests burning throughout the western United States, Canada, Brazil, and Australia; coups and assassinations in Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Haiti; and new and ever more virulent COVID variations, the list continued to spiral out of control as the year went on and took a tremendous emotional toll on me. It seemed that the only constant in our world was change, continual change.

Reflecting that continual change, the quartet is a tour de force work in one movement that is constantly moving and morphing from one figure to the next, often spiraling in circular motions repeating patterns of arpeggios or chords. Like a musical kaleidoscope, the quartet uses one motive from the very beginning but it weaves in and out in different colors and emotions, from the angst-filled beginning, through a more gentle transition with use of harmonics as color, to a playful section that is sporadic and eventually grooves to a beat. In addition to the opening motivic figure, a central melodic idea permeates the piece and closes the piece as a lament, filled with both sorrow and hope as it seeks to reassure.