Love the extended techniques! Fascinating string textures!

Love the violins, and I enjoyed the composition :)

Dramatic, dark, conjures up fantastical scenes from stage performances!

This quartet is having a blast playing this! I'd love to study this score.

I love the dissonances and effects throughout.

Borderline Jazz. Belter be careful! LOL I love it. Nice playing and writing, too .Good work

Lovely piece, complex but with light and shade. I cannot for the life of me execute a string quartet so hats off to you. Expertly and engagingly done.

Written: 2018-19
Duration: ca. 25'
Commissioned by J.K. Billman
Premiere: Euclid Quartet, 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.” The movement ends with more furious barking: he is overcome by distilled tension, imploding inward with a final, loud, buzzing unison tremolo.

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.

String Quartet No. 2

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

String Quartet No. 2 - IV. Scherzando

String Quartet No. 2 - III. Dolente

String Quartet No. 2 - II. Rigor Mortis

Written: 2018-19
Duration: ca. 25'
Instrumentation: string quartet
Commissioned by J.K. Billman and written for and dedicated to the Euclid Quartet
Premiere: Euclid Quartet, Mostly Modern Festival, Skidmore College, Arthur Zankel Music Center, Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall, June 25, 2019.
Publisher: Bill Holab Music

BUY SHEET MUSIC
http://www.billholabmusic.com

FOR MORE INFO. AND PROGRAM NOTES:
https://robertpaterson.com/string-quartet-no-2

String Quartet No. 2 - I. Colored Fields

FALL DOWN

Fourth track from my debut EP 'armored goosebump'. Original is a poem in Dutch by me, written during the Corona pandemic in April of 2020, which got published on the website coronagedicht.nl About forced isolation and the tension that can bring in a relationship. Hope you like it and thanks for the love!

Lyrics & vocals by me
Music & production by Martijn van Dijk
https://soundcloud.com/meneervandijk
Official release streamingservices 2021

Now with video: https://youtu.be/ErwU-O7w5rQ

Happy days

I’m so happy that it’s you
that irritates me more
for you it’s my
persistent whining

We both had our fill
fed up until
we fuck for none to see
while crying

All work out, it will
all work out
every single thing
fucking annoying

Every little thing
worth anything

At least we have each other, love
at least we have each other
we’ve got ourselves 
a life at home worth trying 
at least we have each other

I’m keeping you upright
(afraid to sleep we got a bed light)
keeping me uptight
counting tears
and ways to taunt me

You’re happy to flee
(share a world that’s slowly shrinking)
I irritate you though 
I don’t know 
Who else I could be

All work out, it must
all work out
every little thing 
is worth everything

Every single thing
(you say and throw my way)
the games we play

At least we have each other, love
at least we have each other
we’ve got ourselves 
a life at home worth crying for 
at least we have each other, love

And now one cat is sick
(we beat ourselves with wishful thinking)
it won’t eat
I love you
for trying to feed it

One more stupid thing
(eating badly, started drinking)
making me cry
sad but true 
I really need it

All work out, it must
all work out
every little thing
worth anything

Every single thing
(you say and throw my way)
every single day

At least we have each other, love
at least we have each other
we’ve got ourselves 
a life at home worth dying for 
at least we have each other, love

Armored Goosebumps

happy days

Happy Days

Rusted In Space

Second Harvest

Tectonic

Listen On Spotify

Principio Del Fin

#loungelectronic #electronic #nujazz
"La Frase que nunca dijo..." y que popularizó aún más a la gloriosa Isabel Sarli.
"The Phrase that never said ..." and that made the glorious Isabel Sarli even more popular.
This song is a small tribute to this woman, who is no longer in this dimension and who in these times would be a woman reified by pupularity

Scoundrel

Paypal

Descent

Combstead sent me a track to play with and this is what we got! TOO much fun!

Medicine Man

Medicine Man - Combstead, R Grigg

Dembow Type Beat Estilo El Alfa "MOËT" si os interesa este Beat podéis hablarme a mí Instagram: @caffi_fatti o @caffi_producer
MUCHAS GRACIAS POR EL APOYO!!

Dembow Type Beat Estilo El Alfa "MOËT"

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

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