...and I placed my arm around your shoulder

"...and I placed my arm around your shoulder", string quartet no. 1 (2016-17)
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Instrumentation -
violin I, violin II, viola, cello

Duration - ca. 15'30''

Performance history -
January 26, 2017, Boston, US, JACK Quartet
June 9, 2017, Buffalo, US, Mivos Quartet

Programme Notes -
The sonic structure of the piece is made through various and consistent types of Alternation. For me, it acts as a kind of direction. By alternating different musical shapes, the music starts to drive itself. The term “direction” here doesn’t mean an end, but acts as a Sisyphean metaphor that later shapes come from the formers and then become the formers, and so on…

The title of the piece derives from the last two lines of the poem "Red Sail" by Chinese poet Bei Dao（北岛）. In the poem, the poet stands on the seaside. Wild water symbolises the unknown future of his country and his people, as he, among his contemporaries, belongs to the first generation of poets after the Cultural Revolution. He faces the sunset and watches the water. The sunshine warms his heart and reddens the sail. In the end, he starts off to the sea.

Recording by Mivos Quartet.