I've just finished writing a string quartet. I call it "my "Schiele Quartet", because the "departure point" of each movement is a particular painting by Egon Schiele. I wouldn't want anybody to think, though, that I mean to "represent" in music the painting! We often look at, or interpret paintings differently, and what I "see" may be different from what someone else would! It doesn't matter.
Maybe the painting is just the start of something else...
The first movement is "inspired by Schiele's "The Embrace". For me "The Embrace" is nothing like Klimt's "The Kiss", for example. I think "The Embrace" is intense, elemental, all consuming. I often think of paintings as "frozen moments of expression" - or maybe "frozen moments of intense expression". In a way, they are "perfect"! Because that moment will never pass, that atmosphere will never stop, what they express is almost eternal! An embrace, for example, will never break. They are not subject to the limits of our human condition.
I can even imagine this painting as "the last embrace", if I want to. Anyway, enough about the painting!
The main "body" of the music is essentially a Fugue, which is "encapsulated" by 2 very different sections. The first: tumultuos, intense, "all-consuming"; the last: tragic, an "adio" (the Romanian word of "Good bye for ever!"). At the end a quick allusion to the beginning too.
I wrote this fairly quickly, in fairly awful circumstances - some of it at the hospital... I may still change it, maybe add things later; I'll see...
The "departure point" for the second movement was Shiele's painting "Four Trees"; Four, lonely, desolate trees - and an "apocalyptic sky... I wrote a shorter and a longer version of this movement. The longer version has a "mournful" canon, and then a quote of a particular verse from my recent choir piece. But I really don't feel like talking about it. I wrote almost all of this movement, like the previous one too, around my mum. Or right next to her. It has to do with Schiele's paintings too, but it is a lot more personal than that.
I finished this piece at 5 in the morning on a Monday, a few weeks ago. My sister and I gave her the last morphine at 5.30. At 6 she passed away, after so much suffering... But to me, she is immortal.
The '3rd movement': "Portrait of Herbert Rainer aged about 6 years". No tragedy in this one! But playful, naughty - or rather mischievous - slightly grotesque music. It is a Scherzo. With some allusions (but not that obvious!) to that great master of "magic" scherzos, Mendelssohn. I like my "allusions"! The previous movement had its "coded allusions" to Sibelius, which is strange, cause I am not that great of a fan, ha!
The "departure point", as I call it, for this last piece is "The Family".
This movement is muted all the way through (not so obvious on this computer reproduction), with some extremely quiet passages, especially in the recapitulation, where the music should just ... "evaporate off the strings", almost not as a result of any movement from the performers! So, if you listen to it, don't turn the volume too high, it should be "end of Mahler 9" type quiet, in the outer sections, especially, at the end! It is unfortunately hard to create a huge scale of dynamics on the computer... The middle section has a "wild", over the top, extravagant, "Eastern-European" episode! But still muted - it should be like a "hurricane in a cup". The outer sections should be extremely free. I struggled to suggest that on the computer. I had to use "Notes inégales". The entire thing would sound so much better with real musicians! I was also quite exasperated by a glissando which I just can't fake well on the computer...
But I don't want to talk about the music, or the painting! As Tom Redmond
would say: "let the music take you wherever it ... takes you!"
Here is a sample of my "immaculate" handwriting, while I was working on this!
OK, here is the entire piece, as a soundcloud playlist, with the movements in the "right" order. Even though it is a "Schiele quartet", expressionist angst and all that, and I am no doubt crossing a very "blue period" myself, the quartet is not all entirely desolate! It has a "light" scherzo, a mostly "playful" fugue, some wild, Eastern-European folk inspired bits, etc. But yes, some truly dark passages too, I guess.
For now with the long(er) version of the second movement and the short(er) version of the last movement. This is unfortunately a computer reproduction - not too bad. But, some things are ... missing. For example there should be occasionally a bit less of a "sense of pitch". Some "battuto", "col legno", "sul ponts", some glissandos, etc.. There is a ricochet passage, too.
But hopefully I can manage to perform it and maybe record it soon with real musicians! :)
Maybe the painting is just the start of something else...
The first movement is "inspired by Schiele's "The Embrace". For me "The Embrace" is nothing like Klimt's "The Kiss", for example. I think "The Embrace" is intense, elemental, all consuming. I often think of paintings as "frozen moments of expression" - or maybe "frozen moments of intense expression". In a way, they are "perfect"! Because that moment will never pass, that atmosphere will never stop, what they express is almost eternal! An embrace, for example, will never break. They are not subject to the limits of our human condition.
I can even imagine this painting as "the last embrace", if I want to. Anyway, enough about the painting!
The main "body" of the music is essentially a Fugue, which is "encapsulated" by 2 very different sections. The first: tumultuos, intense, "all-consuming"; the last: tragic, an "adio" (the Romanian word of "Good bye for ever!"). At the end a quick allusion to the beginning too.
I wrote this fairly quickly, in fairly awful circumstances - some of it at the hospital... I may still change it, maybe add things later; I'll see...
The "departure point" for the second movement was Shiele's painting "Four Trees"; Four, lonely, desolate trees - and an "apocalyptic sky... I wrote a shorter and a longer version of this movement. The longer version has a "mournful" canon, and then a quote of a particular verse from my recent choir piece. But I really don't feel like talking about it. I wrote almost all of this movement, like the previous one too, around my mum. Or right next to her. It has to do with Schiele's paintings too, but it is a lot more personal than that.
I finished this piece at 5 in the morning on a Monday, a few weeks ago. My sister and I gave her the last morphine at 5.30. At 6 she passed away, after so much suffering... But to me, she is immortal.
The '3rd movement': "Portrait of Herbert Rainer aged about 6 years". No tragedy in this one! But playful, naughty - or rather mischievous - slightly grotesque music. It is a Scherzo. With some allusions (but not that obvious!) to that great master of "magic" scherzos, Mendelssohn. I like my "allusions"! The previous movement had its "coded allusions" to Sibelius, which is strange, cause I am not that great of a fan, ha!
The "departure point", as I call it, for this last piece is "The Family".
This movement is muted all the way through (not so obvious on this computer reproduction), with some extremely quiet passages, especially in the recapitulation, where the music should just ... "evaporate off the strings", almost not as a result of any movement from the performers! So, if you listen to it, don't turn the volume too high, it should be "end of Mahler 9" type quiet, in the outer sections, especially, at the end! It is unfortunately hard to create a huge scale of dynamics on the computer... The middle section has a "wild", over the top, extravagant, "Eastern-European" episode! But still muted - it should be like a "hurricane in a cup". The outer sections should be extremely free. I struggled to suggest that on the computer. I had to use "Notes inégales". The entire thing would sound so much better with real musicians! I was also quite exasperated by a glissando which I just can't fake well on the computer...
But I don't want to talk about the music, or the painting! As Tom Redmond
would say: "let the music take you wherever it ... takes you!"
Here is a sample of my "immaculate" handwriting, while I was working on this!
For now with the long(er) version of the second movement and the short(er) version of the last movement. This is unfortunately a computer reproduction - not too bad. But, some things are ... missing. For example there should be occasionally a bit less of a "sense of pitch". Some "battuto", "col legno", "sul ponts", some glissandos, etc.. There is a ricochet passage, too.
But hopefully I can manage to perform it and maybe record it soon with real musicians! :)
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