String Quartet
This piece was composed during the 25th IMRO Irish Composition Summer School 2007 at NUI Maynooth. We had the best part of six days to write the piece which was something of a challenge!
I aimed to create an overall dramatic profile which increased exponentially over the duration of the piece. The opening represents a free and formless atmosphere, with fragments of melody floating amongst the players. This ‘chaos’ descends into complete concentration, with a repeated note figure or ‘mantra’ instigating the onset of musical development, or ‘meditation’. Three sections follow which use this repeating ‘mantra’ figure to outline assorted rhythmic structures. Each of the sections include a similar melodic theme, each time set in a different mode or ‘that‘ (the equivalent in Hindustani music). The ending suggests that the concentration driving the musical development has gained so much power that it breaks free of the music into another realm.
Live recording (featuring an earlier version ending):
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MIDI recording (final version):
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