Duration: 4 minutes
Instrumentation: string quartet
Program note:
Apart; Together is a sonic reflection in miniature of the year 2020. The ensemble begins together—albeit with sonorities that feature a collision of consonant and dissonant intervals. Through intermittent glissandi, the harmonic structures begin to drift in and out of focused pitch. In the midst of this disintegration, the viola interrupts with an impassioned, agitated soliloquy. The remaining players similarly take flight on their own trajectories. While the ensuing polyphony veers toward a heterophonic chaos, each straying ensemble member remains bound to one another through overriding structural and harmonic goals. In due course, each part ‘melts’ back together through sliding pitches into a focused, determined, and resolute unison.
Analogies to the myriad crises of 2020 abound, like pandemic-forced physical distancing, and tears in the social fabric through challenges to democracy. The year also inspired acts of unity, including coordinated efforts to create vaccines, and broad solidarity for social justice.
Composed for QuartetES in response to their “Uncertainty of Fate” program