A Lily for String Quartet

String Quartet about the life cycle of a lily

Performed at the 2023 High School Composition Intensive at Boston Conservatory at Berklee by Semiosis Quartet

Revisions to come

Edited October 16, 20232 yr by veps

It is a fantastic work full of delicate elements and extended techniques.

Hi @veps,

This is a good piece to experiment with the extended techniques. I like the glissando in it. Hopefully the music is organic both in its motive and its metaphor of a plant growing too! Thx for sharing!

Henry

A very interesting and inventive piece!

You sure do create a wonderful colorful texture and aural context ... interestingly the repetitious nature of the work does not become static at all and holds one interest to the conclusion of the work.  It knits together like a well made glove.

Mark

Quite an atmospheric piece making great use of quintal harmonies and meaningful and justified use of glissandi!  And the ensemble playing this seems to do quite a good job and stays well in tune with itself!  My only critique is that the piece maybe takes a long time in getting started but that also allows you to build up a certain suspense and expectation for what occurs later.  Although I don't know that the piece really needs any revisions.  You should feel lucky to have gotten such a great performance of your work!  Congrats and thanks for sharing!

  Congrats on the performance!

  I'm generally not a fan of modern music, but I like the programmatic approach here, and the music is very effective in expressing the concept.

   Putting an image in the listner's mind helps create a context for the other-worldly sounds of the extended techniques.

       You are clearly very talented!

Edited October 30, 20232 yr by Rich

I listened to this a while ago for the first time (when I made my account on this forum; I even bookmarked the page to listen to it repeatedly) and have been meaning to say something, but everything I think of feels like a massive understatement.

This is absolutely incredible! Great idea, perfect title, very well executed. Super satisfying usage of techniques to create intricate textures; it's a transcendental form of music that I absolutely adore, wherein the piece isn't just sound. It's a scene. Ahh I can't explain it, but with the title and the music, I feel like I can picture what you're portraying very clearly in my head. Listening to this while walking with a fair presence of nature is a great feeling too.

Kudos to the performers for bringing your piece to life! And thank you so much for sharing!