gravity lost
for string quartet
This is a timecode-supported polytemporal composition
There is no programmatic intention in what unfolds as sound in this piece: any or no relationship to the title and the sounding music is forged at the discretion of the composer, performer and listener. Despite this statement, there is an unfolding of material that manifests through contrasting sections of music to hopefully provide the listener with a compelling experience even without programmatic intent. It is the interplay between and within these sections that is the narrative content of the composition.
The material constituting the quartet writing is drawn from, among other sources, self-borrowed and transformed materials from the violin part in always searching for home (2020), a composition that immediately preceded the each changing series of pieces (2021) featuring various compositions for solo clarinet and clarinet and ensemble and where those materials were themselves self-borrowed and transformed from the violin 1 part of the 2016 string quartet, observation 5.
I am always fascinated how the combination of self-borrowed and transformed musical materials affects how those materials interact in time, constantly changing the vertical, harmonic and rhythmic relationships of the combined elements to sometimes radically alter how we perceive this related material when presented in different contexts.
Duration: circa 11 minutes
© Marc Yeats November 2022