This was a piece composed for a production of Samuel Beckett's "Breath" at Theater Calgary in October 2021.

A special thank you goes to Mark DeJong for the integral solo bass clarinet part.

Music for Samuel Beckett's "Breath"

Brocade

https://cassandramiller.wordpress.com/2015/05/10/about-bach/

This string quartet is an expansion of a solo work for viola (of the same name) which was commissioned by philanthropist Daniel Cooper for violist Pemi Paull. It’s a piece about process, about Pemi’s musicality, about Bach of course, and in the end, about the Quatuor Bozzini.

I first took a recording of a short phrase (the first phrase in major) of the famous Chaconne from Bach’s Partita no. 2, performed live by Pemi. I then meticulously transcribed the recording with the help of some software — this is a process I’ve developed over some years to apprehend the exact rhythmic musicality of a performance, capturing as well various artifacts such as the viola’s upper partials as they change within each bow-stroke.

The opening of the piece is simply this transcribed phrase of Bach, with a harmony of my own making, which turns the phrase into a gently jaunty chorale. From there the phrase goes through a somewhat inaudible process that is simply let to run, until it runs itself out. It’s a constant meandering, a non-developmental piece in an extreme sense. My interest (and freedom) in exploring such a simple form comes directly from working with the Quatuor Bozzini, and this string quartet version is a souvenir of gratitude for years of great inspiration.

About Bach

About Bach, Quatuor Bozzini, premiere, excerpt: last 6 minutes (2015)

Quatuor Bozzini performs All I dreamt; twice as much as a part of Sound Festival Scotland (Sound and Music).  King's College, Aberdeen.  October 26th 2017.  

Audio recording and editing by Lawrence Dunn.

All I dreamt; twice as much.  for String Quartet.

Original Work by Rebecca Bruton.  Performance by Quasar quatuor de saxophones.

Mammalian Mother Tongues, for Saxophone Quartet.

Ways of Returning (2020) - for string quartet and electronics
Part I (Imitation)
Part II (farbenfuge)
Part III (Monophony)

Performed by: Quatuor Bozzini
Electronics - Anthony Tan

Aesthetically, this work represents the mixing of the Classical String Quartet genre with Noise, and Dark Ambient genre signifiers. Theoretically, the work explores timbre through the historical abstraction of modal and tonal counterpoint. The first movement builds timbre through the imitation of acoustic strings by sampled, and synthetically modelled strings. The second movement is a timbre fugue. The third movement is an Industrial Ritual and explores the micro-synchronicity within a pulsation and its effect on timbral blend.

Ways of Returning (2020) - Part III (Monophony) - Quatuor Bozzini - Live Recording

For flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano & percussion. 

Blight (2013)for pierrot + perc

lesley hinger