I just finished the last section, Section 5, of my Third String Quartet on the weekend. I can't promise that this will be the absolute final version, but I think any changes from now on will be minor. I think that the piece will be in two versions. One version will consist of three short sections about three minutes each that can be played as a conventional string quartet. An alternate version will consist of these three sections, but sandwiched between 1 and 3 and 3 and 5 will be two sections in moment form that will use material from the other sections and act as a kind of free meditation on them. If you want to know more about moment form, read this post: A Note on Moment Form.
I previously posted the middle section, Section 3 and today I am putting up the last section, Section 5 (assuming there will be a Section 4 and 2). This piece is a rather dynamic and quirky one and I hope you like it for its instrumental humor. Please leave a comment!
By the way, the only reason that I haven't posted Section 1, which was finished first, is that I am waiting for Finale tech support to fix the glissandi for me. For some odd reason sometimes they come out right, but sometimes they sound like a swoop from Star Trek and other times its a laborious chromatic scale.
A note on the photos: I don't have video to go with the soundtrack, which is a sampled audio file from Finale, so I chose some photos. I didn't take a long time to choose, just photos that I had taken here and there. The first is a screenshot of page one of the score, next is me in my old studio, next is myself and a friend in the Parque del Retiro in Madrid a couple of years ago, next is a photo of where I live in Mexico taken at Christmas time, same with the next which shows a couple of churches, next is a group of street musicians in Madrid (they were playing Vivaldi from the Four Seasons) and finally is a piece of art that I would love to buy as it seems to sum up my life!
6 comments:
I like that a lot Bryan, listened a few times, thanks for sharing. I hope this gets a live reading sometime. the way the scherzo feel alternates with those dense harmonies, very playful and entertaining.
Hi Jives, thanks so much for the very kind comment! It might happen on Tuesday as I just got an email from the quartet in Vancouver who were planning on reading my second quartet then. I might send them this one and say, hey, try this one out. I think that you always think your latest piece is your best and I certainly think that about this one.
I like this. Some of the material sounds creepily playful, at least in its synthesised realisation. The mood is curious. I really like the falling semitone motif each time it comes round - satisfying. And I like the way it ends with the falling motif reversed on top of a more normal cadence.
You know, this movement also feels like it's in G to me!
"Creepily playful" was exactly what I was aiming for!
It is in what I call "hypo-octatonic." You recall in the medieval modes if the finalis is in the middle that is the hypo version? I am using an octatonic scale here, on D, but going out symmetrically both up and down: semi-tone, tone, etc. for a fifth. So it goes from G on the bottom to A on the top. Two "leading tones" E flat and C sharp.
Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for the explanation. Your 'hypo-octatonic' scale is interesting - nice and symmetrical. Just looking at the first page of the score I understand now why the ideas sound thematically connected. On first listen I thought it was a semitone motif. You seem to get a lot out of the scale -- do you deviate from it much, if at all?
No, I treat it pretty freely. I was thinking about it in terms of partitioning, but I probably don't understand that very well. Theoretical concepts like this save me from anything sounding too tonal or typical. But then I let my imagination run free.
Thanks!
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