secret music
instrumentation | string quartet or any combination of strings
date | 2023
duration | c. 7', up to 20'
premiere | commissioned by the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Hochschulwettbewerb Competition
note | secret music is a group sound exercise where a string quartet fully explores the acoustic possibilities of any combination of strings (CGDAE). While focused on a shared group pulse, each player slowly and independently change their pitch, timbre, and group alignment through the pressure and placement of their bows and fingers.
secret music showcases the string quartet’s deep capacity for musical imagination. There are few traditional musical expectations of each performance apart from showcasing musical curiosity & expressivity and a clear commitment to a shared sonic plan. That plan may include specific rates of change, pitch centers, harmonies, voicings, timbres, group dynamics, and more. The plan may also be as simple as listening intently to one another and accompanying or soloing when any player deems it musically appropriate. This piece asks “how can our performance skills as a string quartet help us find new kinds of sounds and musics?” It’s up to each group to determine how they answer that question and make their own secret music.
date | 2023
duration | c. 7', up to 20'
premiere | commissioned by the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Hochschulwettbewerb Competition
note | secret music is a group sound exercise where a string quartet fully explores the acoustic possibilities of any combination of strings (CGDAE). While focused on a shared group pulse, each player slowly and independently change their pitch, timbre, and group alignment through the pressure and placement of their bows and fingers.
secret music showcases the string quartet’s deep capacity for musical imagination. There are few traditional musical expectations of each performance apart from showcasing musical curiosity & expressivity and a clear commitment to a shared sonic plan. That plan may include specific rates of change, pitch centers, harmonies, voicings, timbres, group dynamics, and more. The plan may also be as simple as listening intently to one another and accompanying or soloing when any player deems it musically appropriate. This piece asks “how can our performance skills as a string quartet help us find new kinds of sounds and musics?” It’s up to each group to determine how they answer that question and make their own secret music.