Suite (2015)
Instrumentation: viola quartet
Duration: 10 minutes
- Composed for the Firewood Viola Quartet
Duration: 10 minutes
- Composed for the Firewood Viola Quartet
Program Note:
When writing Suite, I wanted to explore the often-talked-about, dark sonority of the viola, a sound full of depth and richness. Through my exploration, I collaborated with a group of young violists at the 2015 Sewanee Summer Music Festival, the Firewood Quartet. Together, we stumbled upon the beautiful, melancholic sound of a minor-major seventh chord being assembled by a viola quartet. This sound became my inspiration for Suite and later became the linking harmonic thread between the movements, despite their differences in subject matter.
With its delicateness and quietness, the prelude Crystal Lily depicts the fragility of a thin flower resting alone in the universe. Time seems to almost not exist; the minor-major seventh chord gradually forms from moments of loose floating pitches. In contrast, Periodicity is entirely about strict time. A persistent, periodic pulsation spins outward through a landscape of shifting string colors, harmonically weaving in and out of the minor-major seventh sonority.
Anxiety, the briefest of the movements, is a through-composed expression of nervousness and apprehension. This sensation of uneasiness is created by compressing the intervals of the minor-major seventh chord and compressing time. Tempo di Sicilana takes its name from the siciliana, a sixteenth-century dance in compound duple time. This movement wanders about as if searching for a musical answer, the minor-major seventh chord which was shattered by Anxiety. The longest and most melancholy movement, Tempo di Sicilana was also inspired by the practice in the Baroque period of using sicilianas to set somber moments in opera.
When writing Suite, I wanted to explore the often-talked-about, dark sonority of the viola, a sound full of depth and richness. Through my exploration, I collaborated with a group of young violists at the 2015 Sewanee Summer Music Festival, the Firewood Quartet. Together, we stumbled upon the beautiful, melancholic sound of a minor-major seventh chord being assembled by a viola quartet. This sound became my inspiration for Suite and later became the linking harmonic thread between the movements, despite their differences in subject matter.
With its delicateness and quietness, the prelude Crystal Lily depicts the fragility of a thin flower resting alone in the universe. Time seems to almost not exist; the minor-major seventh chord gradually forms from moments of loose floating pitches. In contrast, Periodicity is entirely about strict time. A persistent, periodic pulsation spins outward through a landscape of shifting string colors, harmonically weaving in and out of the minor-major seventh sonority.
Anxiety, the briefest of the movements, is a through-composed expression of nervousness and apprehension. This sensation of uneasiness is created by compressing the intervals of the minor-major seventh chord and compressing time. Tempo di Sicilana takes its name from the siciliana, a sixteenth-century dance in compound duple time. This movement wanders about as if searching for a musical answer, the minor-major seventh chord which was shattered by Anxiety. The longest and most melancholy movement, Tempo di Sicilana was also inspired by the practice in the Baroque period of using sicilianas to set somber moments in opera.