"...and I placed my arm around your shoulder", string quartet no. 1 (2016-17)
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
Program 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, music slightly refines and then starts to drive itself. The term “direction” here doesn’t mean an end, but acts as a Sisyphean metaphor which 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 The Red Sail by Chinese poet Bei Dao（北岛）. In his poem, the poet stands on seaside. Wild water symbolises the unknown future of his country and himself, 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. He starts off to the sea.
Recording by Mivos Quartet.
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
Program 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, music slightly refines and then starts to drive itself. The term “direction” here doesn’t mean an end, but acts as a Sisyphean metaphor which 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 The Red Sail by Chinese poet Bei Dao（北岛）. In his poem, the poet stands on seaside. Wild water symbolises the unknown future of his country and himself, 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. He starts off to the sea.
Recording by Mivos Quartet.
© 2018 by Zhuosheng Jin.