works
Dangerous Flux
for string quartet (two violins, viola, and cello)
Duration: ca. 7'45"
The string quartet, like most string groups, possesses a remarkable ability to sound like four separate and distinct instruments, or a single instrument played by four people, or anywhere in between. This easy fluctuation between what might be called "vertical" (unified) and "horizontal" (discrete) modes of playing, not to mention the many other timbral possibilities of the string quartet, provided the major impetus for this piece.
In the spirit of the quartet's "split personality", Dangerous Flux may be considered a kind of schizophrenic jam session. Initially, the music is chaotic, still in its germinal stage, with various fragments of the melody that is to come being tossed between the instruments�-rearranged, inverted, transposed, and otherwise subjected to a number of manipulations. As the music gains a firmer hold of the rhythm, which throughout the opening of the piece is quite ambiguous, the cello sets up a strong beat and lays out the framework of a modified G-dorian mode which in turn becomes the foundation of the tonality. With the rhythmic and tonal centers defined, the cello lays down a funky, almost hip-hop, bass-line. Any head-bobbers, though, are out of luck-�certain subtle deviations from the standard 4/4 bar set this groove far apart from any you'll hear on the dance floor. The viola takes the melodic fragments from the opening section of the piece and couples them together into a coherent tune, played over the bass-line and under some rhythmic reinforcement from the violins. Over time, though, the melody and even the bass-line become subsumed by violent polyrhythmic arpeggios, also derived from material in the initial part of the piece. After a while, the energy can no longer be sustained and our schizoid musician collapses into a dreamy, yet satisfied, meditation. While the melody and rhythm are again fragmented and amorphous, as they were at first, they are no longer frantic, but relaxed; the music has accomplished its purpose and no longer needs to search for it. Eventually, an almost chorale-like cadence closes the piece in quiet, contemplative serenity.
sound sample (01:51, 873 kb) | score sample