undertow (2023-24) | 9’ | string quartet

Throughout Western music history, especially leading up to the Baroque era, there were many tuning systems that were used by composers, such as Nicola Vicentino or Francesc Valls, before a standard 12-tone tuning system was more largely implemented. Upon listening to some of these “microtonal” compositions, I wanted to take their harmonic language but interpret it in a contemporary string quartet style. Another piece that was inspiring to me was Chaya Czernowin’s Ayre: Towed through plumes, thickets, asphalt, sawdust, and hazardous air I shall not forget the sound of.  The idea of negative space and the visceral feeling of an object being dragged along a surface created by the textures in Czernowin’s piece felt synonymous and almost innate to the quartertonal tuning system used in my piece. Harmonic form from Saad Haddad’s String Quartet No. I  was also inspiring to me. Altogether, the atmosphere created by these influences became somewhat arcane; like a modern dictionary of a long-lost musical language.

premiered by Coda Scheuer, Dmitri Volkov, Addison Hightower, and Mil Carroll on November 6th, 2024 in Auer Hall at Indiana University

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