Forgiveness and The Fear of Forever
(2016)
For Vln, Vln, Vla, Vcl -
35'
Forgiveness and The Fear of Forever uses the genre of the string quartet as a metaphor for how we form an idea of ourselves from the conclusions we have drawn as a consequence of the multitude of narratives we have constructed. Simultaneously, it is written from the imagined perspective of a museo-archaeologist who has dug up ‘the string quartet’ and has attempted to reconstruct it; to fill in the missing pieces and resurrect the form. However, without the cultural context things are misinterpreted, incorrectly contextualised or inaccurate; the inevitable leak-in of the re-constructor’s narratives and conclusions are present.
One example; the first movement is in sonata form, that is, it states its theme, restates, moves it around keys and recapitulates but instead of creating that sense of journey so successful in the form, this function is removed and instead the movement feels broken, frustrated, trapped and perpetual which in turn relates to the title. Throughout the work I have used this conceptual approach to explore the genre and ideas.
You can listen to the work, as interpreted by NotePerformer, here: https://youtu.be/dPtb32dDvyc
