Absence, for string quartet

Hi all! This is a piece I began writing a year ago and have just now finished. It's very tonal for me, although the basis for the piece is a pitch set (which happens to be pretty and consonant). The piece starts off with shifting chords, all on the same set. Those of you familiar with my opera One will recognize the chord.

I started writing this when my then fiancee and I were about to face 2 years of being apart, after 2 years of being together in college. She had graduated and was moving to Florida to get a Master's, and I was (and currently am) staying in Baltimore to finish at Peabody. I wanted to write a piece to represent our staying love during that time. Alas, the way things REALLY work, we broke up due to long distance difficulties. But the idea of the work remains the same. Absence can make love stronger, for people who let it.

Any comments are welcome, and just to let you know, I am open to making revisions. Thanks!

mp3

I like this.

There is a lot of parallel structures in this music. A lot of unison rhythms... but it all works for the concept you trying to do.

It is very pretty, I listened to the first quarter of it, so I don't know the overall structure, how that was pulled off.

Maybe there is something else you can do with the rhythm... I mean.. to offset things a little bit... or explore the string palette a little more.

Harmonics, subharmonics, all that good stuff.

First off, very good work, the mp3 doesn't do it justice (esp some of the effects harmonics in the lower stings and fp would sound much better in performance).

One question though, around measure 73 - 90, the first violin has an excellent melody which we don't hear much of afterwards. Would have preferred hearing more of it -- would be a great viola line with the accompaniment you have there altered. Also, the ending could have used a slight more bit more sense of resolution, just a fifth or octave somewhere (not in the cello, I like your 7th!) to give the chord a little more weight, or repeated with the suggested voicing --- but not too much I see the theme of this piece is "absence" in which there is always an irresolute uneasiness even in the best situations.

Okay, I'm going to assume you had intentions for minimalism here. Harmonically speaking it started out very fresh with the quartal/quintal type stuff going on, I liked that a lot. I know it was based on a set but I wished at the points when you were harkening back more to the beginning that the chords were a little more distinguished, for me it started sounding all similar. Perhaps some more transpositions of the set, maybe even slightly altering it as the piece progressed. However the problem for me maybe didn't lie in the pitches and harmony. Even for a minimalist piece I felt it was a bit too homophonic. I think it could have benefited from slight tweaks in the counterpoint as the piece unfolded in order to yield more interesting rhythmic combinations, kind of in a Steve Reich manner. That would have held my interest longer and possibly without having to change many sonorities. This has loads of potential, I just feel like it's just begging to escape the homophony and wee bit too strict set! You can ignore my tastes haha, but good work.

[EDIT] Bear in mind that MIDI does not do a good job of serving this kind of piece its correct justice!

Composer - I agree with your thoughts about the ending. It could use a little more resolution. To be honest, I just sort of slapped that ending on because I was in a hurry to finish the piece. But i think I'll go back to it and see how I can make it more of an ending.

Thanks for listening, everyone. I'll post it up once I fix the ending!

I felt that overall it was a bit too homophonic, but I really liked the melody at I.

You got to what you were going for, I'm not sure if I like what you were trying though...

Nice work

I do detect an influence of video game music here! It could just be a coincidence though. The opening chords - the pitch set you mention - is a sonority that permeates a certain game called Final Fantasy XII. Sorry to hear about your fiancee!

I do agree that a more striking ending would suit the piece - its just needs a bit more character. I was listening to this, while viewing this forum, and when it ending I did feel unsatisfied with the ending. But I am sure that you will provide a wonderful one for us when you revise this as you say!

I did have a question. In 3/4 time, when all 8ths fill a measure, is there a way of determining whether or not to beam all 6 notes together, or to leave them in groups of two as you have here? I am asking because I am not sure myself.

I did enjoy the beginning especially. Are you planning to add any additional movements to this?

I see you are at Peabody. I am coming as a first year graduate student in the next few weeks. I'm sure we will run into each other!

Oops! 'Aubade128' is actually me. I was having trouble with my password and email for this account, so I logged into an old account that I could remember the email from.

So I have heard your music before, a long time ago when I regularly posted here! It seems to have taken on a different style since then if I recall. But my memory is a little hazy!

Hmm, when I click on the audio file link I get a piano piece that certainly isn't a reduction of the score that is also posted. (I like the piano piece, though.)

Hrm... mine still works fine. Check it again - it might be a YC mess-up between attachments.