String Quartet

String Quartet is the first piece that I wrote as a graduate student at Duke University, and reflects my broad fascination with musical traditions around the world. The first movement begins with an imitation of the sound of the Northeast Thai/Lao mouth organ, khaen, an instrument that I had then just discovered and begun to learn. Following this are juxtapositions of melodies inspired by northern European folk fiddling and Albanian vocal polyphony, as well as two rhythmic patterns found in Indonesian musical traditions.

Progressing from the imitation of the khaen in the first movement, where all four strings work together to imitate the sound of a single instrument, the second and third movements reconfigure the string quartet in shifting and emergent combinations. The second is a ‘solo’ for a cello which subsumes all four instruments. While the third presents a polyphony combination of aggregate timbres produces by pairs of instruments.

8.5×11 PDF score and parts set
$30

All scores are published by 

(ASCAP) and © Christopher Adler (ASCAP)