Joan Tower's White Water - String Quartet No. 5. Score and parts. White Water is the first of four commissions for Chamber Music Monterey Bay's 'Arc of Life' project. Theartist Bill Viola shared excerpts from his video installation 'Going Forth by Day' — a depiction of life in all its stages — with the four composers who then created compositions inspired by this. 'When I saw [Bill]Viola's work I was quite fascinated with how he used water as an encompassing image which influenced everything I saw about the 'person' inside the water. My piece is not directly associated by what he specifically did but itdoes have a strong connection to the image of water as a powerful basic idea and action. The many glissandos hopefully create a 'fluid' environment that connects the various ideas and registers together while 'white water'somehow implies more rapid 'cascading' types of action which occur throughout the piece' - Joan Tower

Par FREEMAN ALEX. Alex Freeman found initial inspiration for his string quartet (2015) in a series of photographs a geologist friend showed him of en échelon veins in rock formations. The open strings punctuated with pizzicato unisons that begin the single-movement work call to mind something crystalline and shimmering, which is immediately infused with tumbling lyrical lines in something of a rapid caccia technique throughout. The middle of the work becomes more suspended in slower material loosely based on a technique of prolation canon, comprises layers of free, expressive, lyrical, and even elegiac music moving at different speeds. As the work concludes, the materials converge in a rhythmically pulsating stasis and an almost chorale-like statement. Duration: c. 13' This product includes the score and the parts (A4 sized). American-Finnish composer Alex Freeman (b.1972) has established himself among the foremost composers of choral music in Finland. A dedicated citizen of his musical community, a teacher, and a choral singer himself, he composes music that reflects an appreciation for a wide range of aesthetics and a passion for communicating with listeners and performers. In his choral works, in particular, we find music that aims to be sonorous, melodic, and resonant, but is always crafted to carefully avoid the cliches that can burden conventional tonality. His instrumental works run the gamut: a cantata with orchestra based on poetry of Whitman; a significant body of solo piano works that reveal deep roots in everything from austere absolute music to soaring elegaic rhetoric (see Albany Records, Inner Voice); his chamber work Blueshift (Navona Records), which is a kind of paean to Reich and Adams in miniature; open-ended modular works, like various iterations of his Slow All Clocks for electronic media, solo clarinet, and mixed choirs of kanteles; and, recently, some new directions in microtonal music. / Date parution : 2022-05-31/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Par BEETHOVEN LUDWIG VAN. Beethoven completed his String Quartet Op.135 at Wasserdorf Castle in Gneixenhof, where he sought to recuperate with his nephew Karl after the latter?s failed suicide attempt in summer 1826. It stands out among his late quartets owing to the often cheerful, almost pastoral character of its four movements. Since Beethoven?s death it has often been interpreted as an attempt to take wise and positive stock of the mishaps that had befallen him in the preceding years regarding his life situation, family and health. This interpretation is strongly suggested by the final movement, ?Der schwer gefasste Entschluss? (The Difficult Decision), with its motto ?Must it be? It must be! It must be!? The editing of this quartet proved especially complex, for the authentic sources were reworked at various stages by the composer. By judiciously assessing them, editor Jonathan Del Mar has managed to clarify many anomalies found in previous editions. - Beethoven?s final string quartet with many new readings - Introduction by Misha Donat (Eng/Ger), editor?s foreword by Jonathan Del Mar (Eng/Ger) and a scrupulous, separately published Critical Commentary (Eng) / Date parution : 2022-07-30/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes