Output details

String Quartet

My String Quartet began from the question: can the visual immediacy of abstract painting be a model for the time-based art of music? In particular, I was interested in the kind of "optical art" represented by Bridget Riley's stripe paintings. In the process of composing, the Quartet became an investigation of a wider question, to do with our contemporary behaviour of switching attention rapidly between different media streams: how do we partition and re-integrate the experience, how do we track and keep the elements in balance? The programme note, included in the score, gives a narrative of these goals and of the shift in the work's focus. The Synopsis and Performance Notes, addressed to the performers, outline the conceptual and technical approach. The music switches constantly between the distinctive material of its three movements. The compositional methodology included several workshops with the Brodowski String Quartet, quartet in residence at the University of Bristol. It was guided by a thought experiment: suppose the three movements were each completed independently, recorded, and cut together in the studio; what compositional decisions would this lead to? The practical composition stayed in the paper domain, because I found that the principle of transitioning could be kept more vital – truer to its concept – if playability was always part of the design. The larger structure benefitted from attention to integration at the same time as dispassionate segregation (a response to the research questions embedded in process as well as result). The music is technically demanding but not exceptionally so. However, it makes virtuosic demands of the players' attention, for them to negotiate the constant and abrupt changes while keeping each stream connected: a performance consequence of the questions.

The première was given by the Brodowski Quartet on 15 May 2013 at the Victoria Rooms, Bristol.