Written: 2018-19
Duration: ca. 25'
Commissioned by J.K. Billman
Premiere: Euclid Quartet, Mostly Modern Festival, Arthur Zankel Music Center, June 25, 2019
Publisher: Bill Holab Music: http://www.billholabmusic.com
For more info.: https://robertpaterson.com/string-quartet-no-2

PROGRAM NOTES
In some ways, String Quartet No. 2 is similar to my String Quartet No. 1: the five movements are stylistically diverse, I use a few snippets of pre-existing music, and the music, while idiomatic, is technically demanding. As with my first quartet, this work explores technical and aesthetic ideas I didn’t have a chance to explore in other works.

The first movement, Colored Fields, is inspired by abstract expressionist painters such as Mark Rothko, Kenneth Noland, and Barnett Newman, but also pointillist painters such as Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. There are textures that emerge and submerge using articulations that gradually shift from soft to loud, or short to long, and there are a few transitions that utilize a technique I call pitch phasing or phase modulation, as opposed to tempo phasing. In these transitions, two or more instruments gradually modulate (raise or lower) notes, motives, or phrases by gradual, very refined, microtonal, non-chromatic increments, settling on new pitch areas that directly reflect the previous areas, just modulated up or town. The movement ends softly with a virtual desaturation of the rhythmic material. I remove notes, one by one, until there’s nothing left.

The second movement, Rigor Mortis, is inspired by a comic strip by David Lynch that newspapers ran for many years. In this strip, Lynch sketched a stressed-out, pitch-black dog, looking very mean and almost buzzing with anger; it looked like it was about to explode. Every strip began with an accompanying paragraph that read, “The dog who is so angry he cannot move. He cannot eat. He cannot sleep. He can just barely growl. Bound so tightly with tension and anger, he approaches the state of rigor mortis.” This made me envision musicians playing with such ferocity and tension that the music seems to eventually cancel itself out, anger imploding in on itself.

The third movement, Dolente, is sad, lush, and mournful. The only request I had when writing this quartet was to incorporate a Norwegian fiddle tune or theme by Edvard Grieg, so I chose themes from Grieg’s String Quartet No. 1. The form of this movement mimics the form of a song by Edvard Grieg’s entitled Spillemaend (Minstrels, or Fiddlers). The poem that Grieg set in 1876 as the first of Six Ibsen Songs (Op. 25) is based on the Norwegian folktale of the fossegrim, a male water spirit who could teach the art of violin-playing, but often at the price of personal happiness. In some versions of the story, the poor violinist drowns in the end. Like the song, and echoing the second movement, this movement beginning with the protagonist’s longing, his desire for the beloved. Next, he encounters the fossegrim, who promises that becoming a master of music will allow the protagonist to become master of his beloved. In the final stanza, the protagonist becomes a master fiddler, but he is now a cursed, wandering musician deprived of earthly love, so he drowns himself.

The humorous fourth movement, Scherzando, capitalizes on effects that at times, often make the string players sound inebriated. I make use of copious glissandi and tempos that fluctuate between 3/4 and 6/8, giving a sense of unease.

The final movement, Collage, is similar to the first movement in that it is inspired by the visual arts, and specifically, collage painting and works by surrealists. Many themes from the first four movements are brought together in this odd-metered movement.

String Quartet No. 2 commissioned by J. K. Billman and is written for and dedicated to the Euclid Quartet.

The Indianapolis Quartet: Robert Paterson - String Quartets 1-3

String Quartet No. 2 - V. Collage

Endora

I’ve purged my pain,
I’ve « trashed » my body and my soul,
Thinking i could dance in hell.
I gave myself
Into lust, i’ve lost control
Let me know, how it felt ???
I’ve switched my brain
My will can no longer hold
All i want, is to be excused.
May i be under influence

(Chorus)
But my heart, and my mind remains cold 5x
Remains Cold 4x

I’ve spill my guts,
and all i’ve got left is obtuse,
I’m a drunk, i’m a skunk, let me seduced. 
*
Give me your trust,
I’m the kind you can’t refuse,
I’m a deamon unleashed looking for you
*

I’am this monster, 
That every one talk about

ENDORA ( Prod Mood Majestic Machine)

Shrike - Neomohican

The days when the jungle sings the same song. The track builds from individually sampled sounds of rain forest animals which slowly move from random chaos to uniformity letting those who listen here the real song and the message.

Singing The Same Song

Batman.

Ando Moon - "Why Can't This Be Real"

Nada bueno espera dentro.
Nothing good awaits inside.

Esto no es un juego.

DON'T GO

A joy to create! Probably one of the newest songs written for the album, the guitar was written a while before the lyrics, I've been wanting to do something with this tune for a couple years and the effervescent Matt Warren has added that cherry on top!

Cracking vocal track from the Cheshire based singer/songwriter, once again really makes the tine what it is - all of the collabs do, cant thank Matt enough. Man of your talent!

Video shot & edited by me, clicking and missioning around North Norfolk, UK

We hope you enjoy, whoever, and wherever you are ✌😀 ✌😊

Beachy Journey Rainforesty Movies (feat. Matt Warren) • single

Lyrics :

Everyday’s been looking the same now
It feels like 10 years rolled in one
Everyone's been hoping for change now
It’s taking way too long to come

How do you count the days when
They all just feel the same and
You hope that it will change but it never does

I know one day this will end and
We won’t have to pretend that
Everything’s ok when it never was

How do you count the days when
They all just feel the same and
You hope that it will change but it never does

I know one day this will be just
Another memory of
A time when everything seemed out of touch

So tell me
How do you count the days when
They all just feel the same and
You hope that it will change but it never does

I know that this time we spent
Living through the World's distress 
Will help to shape the people we’ll become 

Won’t you tell me
How do you count the days when
They all just feel the same and
You hope that it will change but it never does

Count The Days

Mi Casa (Original Mix)

American composer Robert Paterson is a true New Yorker—born and bred in Buffalo, he lived in Rochester and Ithaca for over ten years, in New York City for over twenty years, and now lives in Saratoga Springs, near the Adirondacks. Paterson’s colorful music embraces a wide variety of themes, everything from goddesses and online dating to mathematics and the environment. His music is filled with emotion and fierce rhythmic energy, marked by elegance, wit, and meticulous craftsmanship. Named Composer of The Year by the Classical Recording Foundation at Carnegie Hall, Paterson is the winner of the Alfred I. DuPont Award, and his opera Three Way won the Grammy® under Best Classical Producer of the Year. His music is often a Best of the Year pick on National Public Radio. His orchestral tone poem, Dark Mountains, regularly airs on NPR’s Performance Today. Three Way premiered with Nashville Opera, then BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), and across the United States. Minnesota Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, The Oratorio Society of New York, Buffalo Philharmonic, Albany Pro Musica, Albany Symphony, Musica Sacra, Austin Symphony, Vermont Symphony, and ensembles worldwide perform his works. Paterson gives masterclasses at the Curtis Institute of Music, New York University, the Aspen Music Festival, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and more. He is the Artistic Director and house composer for Mostly Modern Projects. Robert is a lifelong vegan and advocates for animals and the environment, celebrating the natural world with ground-breaking works such as his Triple Concerto, A New Eaarth, Listen, and I Go Among Trees.

String Quartet No. 2 - V. Collage

Robert Paterson Composer