String Quartet, no. 1

This is only the first movement of this string quartet. The "program" for the quartet (which is three continuous movements) follows the quote "And maybe when He says Rise the eyes will come floating up too, out of the deep quiet..." from The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.

This first movement is subtitled: "And maybe when He says Rise..." The basic structure is as follows: inhalation, exclamation, exhalation.

INHALATION

All four instruments enter staggered on C3, beginning with the cello. From there, they follow a basic motivic movement of expansion, a little contraction, and simultaneous parallel or similar ascending movement. This is followed by a caesura.

EXCLAMATION

After the caesura, all four strings have double-stopped sevenths, overlapping, down the entire range of the piece, from a C5 to an F#1. The upper voice in the double stops then cuts out, before returning again. All four instruments switch lower-pitches, and cut the upper double stop. This too is followed by a caesura.

EXHALATION

The four instruments enter simultaneously on different pitches in a dissonant tetrachord. From there, they follow the opposite motivic movement as before, and much quicker: contraction, a little expansion, simultaneous parallel or similar descending movement. When all four instruments reach C3 again, they cut out one by one, until only the cello is left still intoning the pitch, which segues into the second movement.

Other Notes

I originally intended this piece to be more dissonant. I had set myself rules that only stepwise motion was allowed, unless that motion in the proper direction would lead to a doubled pitch. Only C3 could be doubled ever. However, surprisingly, simply through the motion of the voices, it led to many consonant harmonies (and one C Major 4-3 suspension/resolution that was COMPLETELY unexpected). The piece is atonal, because there's no real fix on a central pitch, except at the beginning and the end.

The piece took me fifteen days to write by hand.

About the Title

I wrote the first two-thirds or so of the first movement before the title ever came along. I was originally planning to title each movement after a quote from a piece of literature, but I was having trouble finding quotes that I could unify in some way. By chance, I came across the Faulkner quote, and it caught my attention. I realized that if I split up the whole quote, I could have a pretty strong program there, and the first part of the quote already matched the first part of the quartet.

Apologies

I'm sorry about the MIDI - it contains no dynamic information, because it usually screws it up. When all four movements are completed, I will post scores, with dynamics attached.

P.S. - 100 points to anyone who can figure out the dominant meter (without cheating)!

sq1.I.mid

*shivers* atonal. Sorry after about the 0:30 mark my real player thought it was glitching. I think it tried to shut itself off.

:w00t: LOL! That discouraged me...:P

Courage, mon ami! It's not THAT weird. Honestly.

Meh - I'm not minding too much, because what's going to happen is this: the scores for the second and third movements aren't going to work in any sort of computer notation, so when the whole thing gets transferred to "Major Works," it's just a score.

Seeing as I'm trying to comment on things outside my comfort zone... :w00t:

I found myself trying to imagine how this would sound with real musicians and instruments playing, and I think some of the sonorities you've come up with would be beautiful, even though nearly all are quite dissonant. I love the way it starts on a unison, spreads out, comes to a climax, pulls in, and ends almost exactly as it began. I don't understand why you're employing the techniques you are in this piece, but I appreciate what you've accomplished thereby.

BTW, it was either my player or my speakers that had a little trouble with this, too. I think some of the combinations of sound were so intense that my speakers started to cut out a little.

Something else I noticed: when the final unison returned, I was suddenly INCREDIBLY aware of the overtones of it.

BTW, it was either my player or my speakers that had a little trouble with this, too. I think some of the combinations of sound were so intense that my speakers started to cut out a little.

Same here.

I really hate the way MIDI portrays strings, yikes :w00t: I could give a more accurate critique from hearing the mp3, but I am trying to use my imagination. It didn't really seem to go anywhere to me. As Nico said, quite atonal, and dissonant. I don't think I heard a clear melody. Interesting though. Let me know when you get the score or mp3 posted, and the other movements.

- Jen :P

I've taken the liberty of making an Mp3 for you. PM me for it so you can host it somewhere. If not then anyone else who wants to hear it may talk to me to get it. Good work :w00t:

Holy cow....I am listening to Marius' mp3 of this now....omg! Awesome! It is like a completely different piece now that I can actually tell that these are strings lol.

Very nice work!

- Jen

P.S. - 100 points to anyone who can figure out the dominant meter (without cheating)!

Is it in 5/8 by any chance? :D

Is it in 5/8 by any chance? :D

If you did this without a notation program, kudos bigtime! How'd you guess/know?

Now, re: sound quality...

Thanks to Marius, I have an MP3! Here's the URL:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=513856

It does sound much better.

Damn, I need to get Finale 2006.

This composition is strangly beautiful. I think you've proven that you can express much in so little. Very good job. I think even the strict tonalist will find it hard to call this piece ugly.

If you did this without a notation program, kudos bigtime! How'd you guess/know?

It was basically a guess, but I tried to listen to find a steady tempo, then tried to find a time when you could hear a beat. I assume there are lots of notes that overlap measures and there are few times when an actual rythmic structure is formed. Plus something just told me it was either 5/8 or 7/8. I would have guesses 7/8 if 5/8 wasn't right.

I must be a very individual thinker as I found this piece tonal. It pleased my ears and made sense. Considering the specific habits of a particular era of composers does not figure in to my personal definition of tonality.

I must be a very individual thinker as I found this piece tonal. It pleased my ears and made sense. Considering the specific habits of a particular era of composers does not figure in to my personal definition of tonality.

Interesting you say that, because it does include quite a few tonal conventions. The only thing that makes it atonal is the lack of a central pitch class, really.

all i can say is beautifu. simply and wonderfully beautiful.

I listened to the whole thing but I have to say that it wasn't really my thing but I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt and opened with Finale and played it with the string ensemble - must better than that damn MIDI! The slow speed I think made it drag out longer than it should have been allowed. The opening section was good, the middle section where it goes way-atonal was a bit erm ... well, it didn't go anywhere. Liked the idea of it disappearing off into the distance just like the way it started.

Btw, I guessed 10/4 for the time signature (I chose crotchets because it seemed like a very slow tempo).

I heard what Lee did - the overtones at the end. My main issue with this piece is just that it's LONG and never really moves a lot. Good on you, though, for accomplishing such expressiveness and harmonic variety within those very stringent constraints you describe! Did I mention I LOVE sustained strings?! :angry:

Beautiful piece! Your sonorities are quite stunning and interesting. From the beginning of the piece, the similarities with ligeti's sound mass music struck me.

While I don't think I have nearly as much of a grasp of this stuff as you, a couple ideas popped into my head while listening. I think that glissandos could really make this a lot more tense in places. I also think this may fit nicely to be adapted to string orchestra, providing more warmth and depth to the piece, as well as a greater dynamic range. The problem of stasis that several people mention could perhaps be improved with a larger ensemble, since you'd have a wider palette to "paint" with.

(Just some thoughts, certainly not definitive criticisms)

Overall, this piece is both among the most beutiful and original pieces I've heard on this site. Excellent!

Very impressive work. Reminiscent of Samuel Barber and possibly Krystof Penderecki. I particularly like the thematic idea of each movement following along with the Faulkner quote. Kind of suprising how the title came in after the music, actually, because it seems to be very programmatic.

The mp3 is a little misleading, because it makes the piece sound as if it was being played by an entire string orchestra. Have you considered scoring it as such, because It certainly seems to work. Nice work on this one, I'll have to check up on the succeeding movements.

Sean Christopher Stork

From the beginning of the piece, the similarities with ligeti's sound mass music struck me.

While I don't think I have nearly as much of a grasp of this stuff as you, a couple ideas popped into my head while listening. I think that glissandos could really make this a lot more tense in places. I also think this may fit nicely to be adapted to string orchestra, providing more warmth and depth to the piece, as well as a greater dynamic range.[/b]

I was going for a bit of that Ligeti sound-mass feeling; thanks for noticing :blush:. This movement is actually very close to Ruth Crawford-Seeger's string quartet, third movement. As far as using a string orchestra - I actually don't like the string orchestra sound as much as a quartet or quintet. I like the way the overtones of the solo strings pull on each other. Dynamics in this MIDI/mp3 aren't there, but they're written in on my hand-score. When I post the whole piece in hand-score, you'll be able to see them.

Reminiscent of Samuel Barber and possibly Krystof Penderecki.

For instance, I like Barber's Adagio for Strings better in its original quartet incarnation. It seems to create more tension.

I heard what Lee did - the overtones at the end. My main issue with this piece is just that it's LONG and never really moves a lot.

I realized that when I wrote it - the second movement (which is completed, but unfortunately uses too much extended technique to be able to go in Finale) moves a lot, with a solo violin part - and the third movement was written to sort of be like the Adagio for strings, only not so slow and continuous, but still having motion.

I wish I could post the second movement... it's so detailed though, and Finale can't do everything I need it to. Ah well.