Dancing out of the earth: two movements for string quartet

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Date
2019
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University of Alabama Libraries
Abstract

The string quartet is an ensemble I have always found to be immensely earthy. The contrast between the purity of bowed string sounds and the percussive wooden body of the instruments is of particular interest to me. These two contrasting qualities led me to compose a pair of movements for the ensemble, a format that allows for a number of immediate juxtapositions and explorations of distinct characteristics in consecutive pieces. The title of this two-movement work, Dancing out of the Earth, comes from my fascination with the idea of a primeval pulse that begins in the soil and rises up through all things, whether living or inanimate. This idea of earthiness overlaps with my rhythmic-metric language, particularly with regard to my lifelong exploration of world music traditions. None have been more impactful for me than the asymmetrical compound meters of East European folk music and the polyrhythmic structures of West African dance-drumming, both of which guide the form and textures of the first movement, which is titled fiddle tune and experimentations. The second movement incorporates some of the earliest musical sketches I ever wrote, fragments put to paper when I was around ten years old. These sketches utilize very sparse pitch materials taken entirely from the C Ionian collection, except for a single A-flat. This second movement, an elegy, was completed in the aftermath of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. The movement is dedicated to the victims of that atrocity, and to all victims of gun violence in America.

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Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
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Musical composition
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