String Quartet I

String Quartet nr. 1 (2000/rev. 2017)

Commissioned by the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst for the Utrecht String Quartet.

In the String Quartet I each movement deals with one or two given subjects. The first movement addresses meandering melodies and the double attack, in the second movement the grace notes are the subject. The third movement pairs movement with fifth chords and finally the fourth movement limits itself to pizzicato.

I like musical veils on a tonal base whereby one asks oneself what exactly is happening. My obsession for identical subjects sounding simultaneously–or not–comes in handy. Equivalent musical subjects intertwine, rub past each other and sniff each other out, sometimes proceeding on together.

Strijkkwartet I was commissioned by the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst.

Watch and listen to the world premiere of the revision by the Eurasia Quartet on 15 Augustus 2017 during the Orlando Festival. Click on the photos.

1.With an intensive longing

2. Intensively, with a very thick sound

3.Delicate & 4.Peacefully

Eurasia Quartet: Nikita Akulov, Dimitri Astashka, violin; Ekaterina Degtyareva, viola; Stanislav Degtyarev, cello.

Have a look at the first eleven pages of the score...

Listen here to the CD-recording of the original version by the former Zephyr Quartet.