STRING QUARTET NO. 1
	I. Intrada
	II. Hymn-1
	III. Scherzando
	IV. Hymn-2
	V. Moderato


Timing: approx. 19 minutes   (1)  2:35; (2) 4:10;  (3) 2:30;  (4) 6:00; (5) 6:00
NOTES:
Commissioned by Chamber Music America for the Shanghai String Quartet, Fred Cohen’s String Quartet No. 1 is set in an arch-like form spanning five movements.  The first movement introduces a dance-like theme in a contrapuntal, jagged setting. Similarly, the third movement is an energetic moto perpetuo; where the first movement was dry and crisp, the third is wet and replete with swooping glissandi.  The second and fourth movements provide contrast with the first and third.  In the second, slow-moving ostinati, developed from material in the first movement, create a sonic space that is at all times sensitively sonorous and architecturally complex.  The fourth movement is more spacious yet—emphasizing homorhythmic melodies and hymn-like textures.  In the final and culminating movement, elements of the previous four combine, developing gradually from a syncopated and impulsive texture to a smooth, gentle and quiet conclusion.  One way to hear the opening of the fifth movement is to realize that the material from the first and third movements is presented vertically, rather than horizontally.  After a cathartic, fortissimo climax, the ceiling of the sonic space so carefully laid in the second movement is lowered until only an Eb-major chord remains. 


FredCohen String Quartet No. 1 5

FredCohen String Quartet No. 1 4

FredCohen String Quartet No. 1 3

FredCohen String Quartet No. 1 2

FredCohen String Quartet No. 1 1

Pt. Reyes Seashore (2011)

The sound world of Pt. Reyes Seashore came to me in the winter of 2010-11 during a hike with my family in the Pt. Reyes National Seashore.  Pt. Reyes is a cape about 60 miles north of San Francisco.  It has the distinction of being connected to the San Andreas Fault, and, as a result, of moving northward at the rate of about 2 inches per year.  It is the home of numerous species of flora and fauna, and contains some of the most remarkable views of and access to the Pacific Ocean on the West Coast.
We had been hiking the McClures Beach Trial in the northern part of the park when we passed uphill of a magnificent passage of ocean pounding against the rocks and beach of the coast.  The sound—even at a distance of perhaps 500 yards—was incredibly memorable:  deep booms, echoes, churns…. it challenged me to think of any human produced or created sound that could equal its magnificence.  Experiencing the scene—the waves on the coast, the vast ocean behind it—I thought of the power of the ocean, and the humility of water.  

Pt. Reyes Seashore is based on the concept of waves resulting from the simplest ingredients.  The entire piece is wave shaped, beginning with the elements of the composite form, gradually accumulating mass and momentum, and finally dissipating into elemental forms.  The piece modulates from pitched to unpitched materials and back again over a span of approximately ten minutes.


Pt. Reyes Seashore is dedicated to Paul Vaillancourt and the CSU Percussion Ensemble. 

Fred Cohen


Pt. Reyes Seashore

¬¬¬¬ Laps and Lhasa is a one-movement work featuring solo bass and alto trombones, accompanied by trombone octet (six tenor and two bass trombones).   The work is dedicated to the great trombone virtuoso Charlie Vernon. Mr. Vernon is a master of all three modern incarnations of the trombone—the alto, the tenor, and the bass—and this work takes advantage of his versatility with passages for the bass and alto instruments.

In addition to his prowess on the trombone, Mr. Vernon is a dedicated and accomplished swimmer—a fact I came to realize during his visit to the Schwob School a few years ago when I arranged to help him with guest privileges at our local Y, where he swam laps nearly every day of his residency.   Indeed, his dedication to swimming became one of the inspirations for Laps and Lhasa—translating laps in the pool to a formal structure of developing variations, equivalent to a progression of varying strokes up and down the length of the pool.  

I was also inspired in this piece by my experiences in northern India, where I had the opportunity to visit several Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and experience the joyful music making of the monks.  One particularly memorable moment involved standing on a monastery’s rooftop before sunrise and sharing a sunrise instrumental ritual featuring several Tibetan longhorns (brass instruments similar to slideless trombones) bouncing low “D”s off the mountains five or so miles away, accompanied sporadically by Tibetan gyalings (oboe-like instruments).  These sounds became the basis of the opening section of the piece, where the soloist sounds a low “D”, and the accompanying trombones begin by performing with their mouthpieces attached directly to the bells of the trombone (without the attendant bodies of the trombones).

Laps and Lhasa is commissioned by Dr. Bradley Palmer and CSU/Schwob School of Music Trombone Ensemble, and dedicated to Mr. Charlie Vernon.


Laps And Lhasa

FredCohen ConcertoForPiano3

Fred Cohen ConcertoForPiano1 - 2

...curls of motion... is a work in a single movement for trumpet and wind ensemble. It was written this summer especially for Phil Smith, one of the greatest trumpet players in the world. To a large extent, it's based on a short poem by A. R. Ammons, one of my favorite poets whose work I’ve set in the past, although ...curls of motion... is the first for a purely instrumental ensemble:
What lightning/ strikes/ in an/ instant/the boulder hums/ all year
One way to understand the piece is that it alternates between two perceptions of time: the searing pulse of lightning, and the languid pulse of the boulder. However, for the most part, the pulse itself is constant, just as energy in our world is constant. What changes is our perception: boulder, or lightning?
The ensemble including some resemblances of boulder and lightning--thunder sheets, metal plates, low rumbling sounds and high energetic ones--but retains its own as a work of abstraction, just as poetry alludes to what is beyond words.
