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Vertigo

This string quartet in one movement was composed in response to Bernard Herrmann’s score for the Hitchcock film of the same name. The source material is a tetrachord (and subsequent series of four homophonic chords) which Herrmann introduces at the start of the film’s ‘overture’. Rather than provide ‘Variations on a Theme’ I chose to begin the work with original material and gradually reveal Herrmann’s music as the work progresses, assembling it in real time through a process of reverse fragmentation (similar to the use of Bach in Frozen, above, but here more dynamic and directional).

The music is cyclic in structure, comprising five transformations of the original sequence, each of which clearly starts from the same point (an aggressive ‘fanfare’ gesture on viola) before exploring the material from a different perspective; each successive cycle imposes its own transformational process on the sequence so whilst the music is broadly recognisable on each repetition it is apparent that an evolution is underway.

The fourth cycle is the most fragmented, allowing me to superimpose the outline of Herrmann’s harmonic structure onto my original (primarily melodic) music, thereby preparing a context in which Herrmann’s music is able to move into the foreground in the fifth cycle. The romantic film score harmonies are interrupted by the ‘fanfare’ gesture which announces a sixth cycle but the work ends abruptly before this can become properly established.

Vertigo was first performed by the Tippett Quartet in March 2011 during the ‘Partners in Suspense’ conference held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Herrmann’s birth. I have since composed a new work (‘Velocity’ for the Ligeti String Quartet, first performed in May 2012); this new work extends and develops ideas from Vertigo to provide a more substantial piece for concert performance.