Quaternity

Instrumentation:  2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, 2 percussion, strings

Year composed: 2017

Duration: 12'

Commissioned by the Boulder Symphony

There's a common thread amongst composers—their composition journey brings them to an infatuation with art. (The same is said about painter to music.) I witness art when I visit composer’s homes, on their websites, and hear references of it in conversation. This makes visible the relationship between art and music—a relationship that has allowed the two crafts to run parallel for centuries. For example, the impressionist art of the 19th century can easily be put up against the music of that time. We can view a Monet painting and see it as a Debussy piece sounds. The same can be said about the subsequent expressionist movement with the art and music of the 20th century. It’s even seen in architecture. I look at the buildings of the New York City skyline that have been constructed over the last two decades and recognize their design hearing the music of the minimalist movement in my head. Indeed, art and architecture are frozen music.

I couldn’t help but ask, How would a piece of art be designed to my own music? I received the opportunity to have this questioned answered when I was given a commission to write a piece that artist Will Day would paint to. To plan, I visited a number of art museums in New York while listening to music. I viewed paintings of Jackson Pollock, Cy Twombly, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gerhard Richter, and many local artists. Though I can't say I knew what to write directly from looking at paintings, within serval days, I had composed what is now the last five minutes of the piece. In this section were several “musical identities”—a four note motive, a five note figure—based on a percussion rudiment call a flamacue—a single chord progression, and a four measure theme. This set of “identities” became the structure of the music leading up to the last five minute string filled outro. I hadn’t realized how many “identities” were utilized until after I submitted the piece to the Boulder Symphony. When asked to name the piece, I counted the four elements which lead to the name Quaternity.