Monday, September 28, 2020

Quartet 3 Opening

With some help from Finale, I improved somewhat the playback of the glissandi in the opening section, so here is a clip that you can listen to. I have changed my mind about the basic structure somewhat. My original intention was to have five sections. The first, third and fifth were to be composed out and the second and fourth were going to be in moment form. For the present at least, I have dropped that idea. Instead we have the three existing sections which will be the Quartet 3. The three sections will be called

  1. Opening, Slowly, quartet note = 50
  2. Middle, Moderato, quarter note = 80
  3. Ending, eighth note = 240
And that's it! Here is the Opening:



And here are the links to the Middle (previously, Section 3) and the Ending (previously, Section 5). 



The main reason I decided to not add the other sections is that the quartet in Vancouver, the Pro Nova Ensemble, want to read the piece, so I thought I should give them something complete. And, I rather like it in this manifestation. It's a short quartet, about ten minutes total.

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6 comments:

  1. StevenSeptember 30, 2020 at 3:32 PM

    It's a compelling opening movement, kind of creepy like the last movement. The glissandi remind me a bit of Gubaidulina. Are those quarter tones at 1:34?

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  2. Bryan TownsendSeptember 30, 2020 at 4:11 PM

    No quarter tones were harmed in the making of this piece. Just some glissandi.

    If anything I do reminds you of Gubaidulina, thanks!!

    I'm going to have to send you the score again, aren't I?

    Thanks so much for the comment.

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  3. StevenSeptember 30, 2020 at 4:56 PM

    You're quite welcome to send me the score, always interesting. I imagine this movement is the least well served by the midi sounds.

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  4. Bryan TownsendSeptember 30, 2020 at 6:06 PM

    These are not midi sounds, they are professionally recorded samples called Garritan Instruments for Finale. But their weak spot is the glissandi, which they just don't do very well. They didn't sample glissandi!

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  5. StevenOctober 1, 2020 at 4:04 AM

    Huh, my computer ignorance shows -- I thought sampled sounds were also called midi. Sibelius Sounds glissandi are just as bad.

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  6. Bryan TownsendOctober 1, 2020 at 7:37 AM

    Since I don't work with midi instruments, my ignorance of them is huge, but I am pretty sure that the playback is with sounds sampled from real instruments. The discussion is prodding me to read up more in the manual. Yes, I haven't done much with Sibelius because the sampled playback sounds I heard were really horrible! I much prefer Finale, which is, most of the time, much better. But neither of then does glissandi very well.

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