Study 3
Study 3: Color, texture, harmony for string quartet
This is Study 3, in a planned series of 10-15, exploring various compositional techniques.
This one is scored for string quartet. It has six sections, built around a 32-bar theme, which is examined and reexamined in various harmonic and textural contexts. It delves the deepest into jazz idioms of all my pieces to date.
- [00:00] Initial theme, 32 bars
- [01:00] Variation with simple counterpoint, 32 bars
- [02:00] Variation with more elaborate counterpoint and a muted tone, 32 bars
- [03:00] Variation with double-time melody, jazzy rhythm and syncopation, 64 bars
- [05:00] Variation that really pushes the jazz harmony, rhythm, and syncopation, with a bright tonality suggestive of a brass section, 32 bars
- [06:00] Concluding section, returning to the original theme, still jazzy, still swinging, but with scaled back harmony, 32 bars
The fundamental theme is built on a 4-bar motive (A), which is then inverted (B). The whole thing is (more or less) inverted and varied, bringing us to 16 bars. Measures 17-23 repeat A and B. Then 24-32 bring a new concluding phrase. Measure 27 is the peak or climax of the theme, at about 85% of the total.
At a higher structural level, the sections build on one another, starting simple, adding more and more complexity, peaking in section 5, at about 83%, then backing off for the conclusion.
The whole thing is a musical fractal, with patterns that repeat at larger and larger scales.