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String Quartet No.5: Haec Dies

Natural and sonic phenomena lie behind this work. those that are "natural" are suggested in the subtitle to each movement. Sonic ones are - firstly- the sound of a Himalayan singing bowl which i bought in 2012 and -secondly- live experience of the singing of Benedictine monks at Pluscarden Abbey in Scotland, and particularly their singing of the Easter Gradual Haec Dies.

At one stage in each movement there is an attempt to parallel the singing bowl "chord", or spectrum. Each attempt produces a closer parallel , since the progressively finer retuning in each movement facilitates accurate playing of the pitches which characterise its sound. However the main way in which the singing bowl entered the "DNA" of the work follows from spectral analysis: it was noticed that the frequencies revealed could be generally accurately replicated with some transposition, if the semitone were to be divided into 3 -and eventually- 6 equal parts. This is the first work in which i have attempted such divisions of the octave, which are achieved by progressive retuning of the quartet throughout the work's performance.

Melodic extracts from the Gradual pervade all movements of the work; from the 5-note motif prevalent in the first movement, extensive quotation by violin 2 in the second and "cackling" fragments in the third, to the melodic shaping of the four solo passages in the finale.

Slides in the portfolio are extracted from those prepared for a co-presented pre-concert lecture (sound festival 2013 brochure p5) Slide 1 summaries the spectral analysis of the singing bowl; slides 2-4 are scans from sketches of the fourth movement showing calculations for interference beating (a component of the singing bowl sound realised in the movement), and the allocation of spectrally-derived pitches in both melodic and harmonic contexts.