This String Quartet is made up of three movements with the two outer movements serving as mirrored poles and a contrasting second movement in the middle. The piece is very free but the first and third movements are comprised (almost) entirely of a repetitive intervallic pattern which is cut up and manipulated in many ways, so as to make it mostly unrecognizable. In the second movement, the darkness of the outer movements subsides, giving way to a droning foundation and singing melody. Tremendous gratitude belongs to the literary work of William S. Burroughs, whose revolutionary “cut up“ method in part inspired the techniques that I employed throughout the piece in developing my interval fragments.
Performers: Micah Vogel, Emily Criss – Violin
Krista Swenson – Viola
Laura Robb Martin – Cello
Premiered 5-1-18 at University of the Pacific