String Quartet No. 1
2009 | Op. 11
Duration: 24:00
finalist, 2009 Lyrica Chamber Music Young Composers Competition
I. Allegro deciso
II. Presto leggiero
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro feroce
Program Note
String Quartet No. 1 was begun in the late summer of 2008 and completed in the fall of 2009. However, the initial inspiration for the quartet came a year earlier while working out ideas for an orchestra piece. These measures, which you will hear at the very beginning of the quartet, were completely useless for that work, but seemed like excellent material for a string quartet. It was not until August 2008 that I was able to begin seriously working on the piece, which I envisioned as my first large scale composition. Though I was quite set on using the general four-movement form for the piece, ideas came slowly at first. In fact, the first movement only solidified after I made several revisions to the dramatic opening gesture, and rediscovered another unused melody of mine which I thought perfect for the lyrical second theme. Even so, the going was quite difficult, as the weight of such a venerated genre came to bore on me, as if my idols, in this case Barber, Brahms, and Shostakovich were constantly watching over my shoulder.
After completing the first movement, I quickly composed the second over a weekend in November 2008. The second movement is a Bartok-styled Scherzo that treads the line between the playful and the profane. The movement is built on a few basic motives and figurations, one of the most important being a variant of a main motive from the first movement.
The drama of the first movement and capriciousness of the second are then followed by an Adagio. This movement was written in the spring of 2009, and completed in mid-April, only to be reworked over the month of July while I was studying in Paris. The movement is based on a very simple two-measure melodic idea which becomes a unifying element for the piece and its emotional landscape.
The fourth movement is an Allegro written in the style of Shostakovich. It challenges not only the performers, but the musical material of the quartet itself; the movement shares many motivic links with both the second movement and the first movement’s more fiery parts. These motives are spun together at a fast-paced clip which builds up to a macabre dance that seems to mock the quartet’s early movements before finally bringing the entire work to completion to its dramatic completion.
finalist, 2009 Lyrica Chamber Music Young Composers Competition
I. Allegro deciso
II. Presto leggiero
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro feroce
Program Note
String Quartet No. 1 was begun in the late summer of 2008 and completed in the fall of 2009. However, the initial inspiration for the quartet came a year earlier while working out ideas for an orchestra piece. These measures, which you will hear at the very beginning of the quartet, were completely useless for that work, but seemed like excellent material for a string quartet. It was not until August 2008 that I was able to begin seriously working on the piece, which I envisioned as my first large scale composition. Though I was quite set on using the general four-movement form for the piece, ideas came slowly at first. In fact, the first movement only solidified after I made several revisions to the dramatic opening gesture, and rediscovered another unused melody of mine which I thought perfect for the lyrical second theme. Even so, the going was quite difficult, as the weight of such a venerated genre came to bore on me, as if my idols, in this case Barber, Brahms, and Shostakovich were constantly watching over my shoulder.
After completing the first movement, I quickly composed the second over a weekend in November 2008. The second movement is a Bartok-styled Scherzo that treads the line between the playful and the profane. The movement is built on a few basic motives and figurations, one of the most important being a variant of a main motive from the first movement.
The drama of the first movement and capriciousness of the second are then followed by an Adagio. This movement was written in the spring of 2009, and completed in mid-April, only to be reworked over the month of July while I was studying in Paris. The movement is based on a very simple two-measure melodic idea which becomes a unifying element for the piece and its emotional landscape.
The fourth movement is an Allegro written in the style of Shostakovich. It challenges not only the performers, but the musical material of the quartet itself; the movement shares many motivic links with both the second movement and the first movement’s more fiery parts. These motives are spun together at a fast-paced clip which builds up to a macabre dance that seems to mock the quartet’s early movements before finally bringing the entire work to completion to its dramatic completion.