How are those fast trill-like double stop harmonic figures played? It seems only every other one is marked as harmonic. How is that placement achieved at such high speed, am I misreading what is happening with those? Is that part of the instability...that from performance to performance these partials could be variable? Work like this recalls to me Nico Muhly's idea of exploring 'the emotional possibilities of technique'. I found more interest in the textures than the harmonies, as changes in texture and intensity seemed to give the greater sense of structure to this piece. The instability of the harmonies, and thus their non-functioning nature, were happenings, but not really the drivers of the piece. I can't really tell whether the conceptual considerations have a corresponding aesthetic or emotional payoff. I do wonder if the exploration 'what is a trill' might be comparable to a writer exploring the comma in the sentence. Broadly we experience the value and essence of the comma, not by clustering a thousand commas with no words on a page, but for the effect they have in the context of words, as meaningful pauses, clarifying sense and meaning. I wonder if the trill, rather than being explored, might lose its meaning in the act of oversaturation. This is also the inevitability of conceptual work...if its meaning or essence rests somewhat on an extra-musical idea, then the value of the concept and what it actually yields must be critiqued as well as the music.
Hi! The double stop harmonic techniques are quite easy to achieve, actually. You can find a video about how to trill harmonics on the cello on my channel (which applies to the other string instruments as well). It's just alternating with the open strings, and I made sure that they were all playable prior to writing. as for the instability, there is some instability, but for the most part the sounding results are fairly consistent and predictable. In this piece, you are right that the piece is less about harmony and more about texture--this was the intention. There are some "melodic" lines that emerge in relief and lend some structural elements to the overall form, but they are not the sole focus. The harmony specific vertical sonorities were thought out as well, but not so much as harmonic progressions as densities (which could be very dense or very sparse). For me, the comma analogy you made doesn't really make a lot of sense in this case, and the trill is really just an on-off idea--a simple alternation between two states. It's not exploring what a trill is for the sake of it. Also, this alternation concept doesn't have need to have a single function within the context of the piece, like a comma does in the structuring of language. Rather, it varies depending on which layer or time scale you look at. Throughout the piece I explore extremes of various parameters of sound: quiet to loud, textural noise to singular unison, trilling to not trilling, quartet to solo, etc. If you're trying to understand and critique the value of the concept or the concept itself, I think it's important to understand my intentions first before making conclusions. Thanks for listening!😀
@@mathewarrellin Thanks for the explanation that is very helpful. I gathered what I could from your stated intent. versus what I was hearing. I didn't come to conclusions, I raised questions. You spoke of emphasizing togetherness versus separation. I'm saying it could be easily argued that the degree of dissonance, and the many implied tonal clashes in the rather long section of dense textures speaks of separation and conflict, not togetherness. One reads words, one hears something different in the music and it raises a question about whether the concept is all that valuable to the listener. I admittedly am not a big fan of conceptual art...as it often gets the cart before the horse. I've heard some really great pieces of music that use various extended techniques in quite a fascinating and emotionally satisfying way. The question always for me is whether a piece sounds like a cold mechanical exercise of intellectual complexity, or whether it is a living existentially vital work. I would probably have to listen to your piece many time to come to any conclusion. I would say after the 2nd listen that the latter parts of the piece were much more vital and interesting to me than the opening minutes.
@@johnpcomposer you're hearing those dense textures as I do! for me, the only moments of togetherness are when the quartet plays unisons. Everything else is separation. That's why the form unfolds the way that it does: there are a few big moments of unisons (and a few small ones towards the end that act as a sort of microcosm of the entire piece), which are each distinct from one another. And these are great questions that you're raising! For me, I try to always let my ears guide me through the compositional process. The concept has to be extremely simple (i.e. on-off) so it can manifest in many ways and not bottleneck my creativity. I totally understand what you mean about cold mechanical exercises! I try to avoid this in my music.
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How are those fast trill-like double stop harmonic figures played? It seems only every other one is marked as harmonic. How is that placement achieved at such high speed, am I misreading what is happening with those? Is that part of the instability...that from performance to performance these partials could be variable?
Work like this recalls to me Nico Muhly's idea of exploring 'the emotional possibilities of technique'. I found more interest in the textures than the harmonies, as changes in texture and intensity seemed to give the greater sense of structure to this piece. The instability of the harmonies, and thus their non-functioning nature, were happenings, but not really the drivers of the piece. I can't really tell whether the conceptual considerations have a corresponding aesthetic or emotional payoff. I do wonder if the exploration 'what is a trill' might be comparable to a writer exploring the comma in the sentence. Broadly we experience the value and essence of the comma, not by clustering a thousand commas with no words on a page, but for the effect they have in the context of words, as meaningful pauses, clarifying sense and meaning. I wonder if the trill, rather than being explored, might lose its meaning in the act of oversaturation. This is also the inevitability of conceptual work...if its meaning or essence rests somewhat on an extra-musical idea, then the value of the concept and what it actually yields must be critiqued as well as the music.
Hi! The double stop harmonic techniques are quite easy to achieve, actually. You can find a video about how to trill harmonics on the cello on my channel (which applies to the other string instruments as well). It's just alternating with the open strings, and I made sure that they were all playable prior to writing.
as for the instability, there is some instability, but for the most part the sounding results are fairly consistent and predictable. In this piece, you are right that the piece is less about harmony and more about texture--this was the intention. There are some "melodic" lines that emerge in relief and lend some structural elements to the overall form, but they are not the sole focus. The harmony specific vertical sonorities were thought out as well, but not so much as harmonic progressions as densities (which could be very dense or very sparse).
For me, the comma analogy you made doesn't really make a lot of sense in this case, and the trill is really just an on-off idea--a simple alternation between two states. It's not exploring what a trill is for the sake of it. Also, this alternation concept doesn't have need to have a single function within the context of the piece, like a comma does in the structuring of language. Rather, it varies depending on which layer or time scale you look at. Throughout the piece I explore extremes of various parameters of sound: quiet to loud, textural noise to singular unison, trilling to not trilling, quartet to solo, etc.
If you're trying to understand and critique the value of the concept or the concept itself, I think it's important to understand my intentions first before making conclusions. Thanks for listening!😀
@@mathewarrellin Thanks for the explanation that is very helpful. I gathered what I could from your stated intent. versus what I was hearing. I didn't come to conclusions, I raised questions. You spoke of emphasizing togetherness versus separation. I'm saying it could be easily argued that the degree of dissonance, and the many implied tonal clashes in the rather long section of dense textures speaks of separation and conflict, not togetherness. One reads words, one hears something different in the music and it raises a question about whether the concept is all that valuable to the listener. I admittedly am not a big fan of conceptual art...as it often gets the cart before the horse. I've heard some really great pieces of music that use various extended techniques in quite a fascinating and emotionally satisfying way. The question always for me is whether a piece sounds like a cold mechanical exercise of intellectual complexity, or whether it is a living existentially vital work. I would probably have to listen to your piece many time to come to any conclusion. I would say after the 2nd listen that the latter parts of the piece were much more vital and interesting to me than the opening minutes.
@@johnpcomposer you're hearing those dense textures as I do! for me, the only moments of togetherness are when the quartet plays unisons. Everything else is separation. That's why the form unfolds the way that it does: there are a few big moments of unisons (and a few small ones towards the end that act as a sort of microcosm of the entire piece), which are each distinct from one another. And these are great questions that you're raising! For me, I try to always let my ears guide me through the compositional process. The concept has to be extremely simple (i.e. on-off) so it can manifest in many ways and not bottleneck my creativity. I totally understand what you mean about cold mechanical exercises! I try to avoid this in my music.