PLAYGROUND FOR STRING QUARTET

I. Copycat
II. Ropes & Ladders

Some of the most engaging music I’ve participated in — either from the stage or the audience — involved the musicians listening, connecting, and reacting to one another; a layer of performance practice which I found challenging to access in my work as a composer. The two short pieces presented here seek to cultivate, or even demand, a particular quality of listening and connection between the quartet. Sections of the music are shaped by a set of choices and rules, almost like a game, in which my role as composer is to create the conditions for that connection and attentive listening to flourish; to facilitate, rather than dictate. Leave a well-stocked fridge, rather than a dish to be reheated. Give them fishing poles, not fish. You get the idea.