String Quartet No. 3 “Patchwork”

String Quartet No. 3, “Patchwork” (1993) –  23’00”.  All the movements in this quartet started out as something else. Two of the four were successfully performed, but they were written for very different mediums. The other two came from a fragment and from an unperformed work.

“A Windy March” was a fragment for wood-wind quintet.  The march-like quality and the title remain as reminders of the movement’s birth.  “Partial Homage” refers to a piece composed for orchestra.  Before the orchestra work was ever performed, I arranged the current movement by working down the original from triple winds, percussion and strings to the bare necessities.  “Amplified Aboriginal Waltz” is the reworking of a movement from a successful suite for solo alto saxophone entitled Natural History, honoring Margaret Mead.  The original movement was less than a minute long and always seemed to deserve a more complete setting. “Bear Revisited” reworks the last part of Blue/Ramblin’/Bear, a work for trumpet, cello and piano.  The trumpet part for that section was high and fast and a “bear” to play on that instrument.

Difficult

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To listen to the third movement, Amplified Aboriginal Waltz, click here.