Instrumentation: 2 vns, vla, vc
Duration: 23:40
Quartet in nine parts: I. Disorientation II. Anxiety III. Grieving IV. Racing Thoughts V. Depression VI. Solitude VII. Disconnection VIII. Pressure Cooker IX. Get Going
String Quartet No. 5: Dancing on Air (2013)
Instrumentation: 2 vns, vla, vc
Duration: 21:30
Quartet in four sections: I. Into Air; Falling Ascent II. Leaping; Constant Pressure III. Levitate; Taking Flight IV. Floating Over; Droplets to Waves. View excerpts of the score below:
String Quartet No. 4: Zydeco Madness (2006)
Instrumentation: 2 vns, vla, vc
Duration: 9:30
To the forgotten of Hurricane Katrina.
First performance: Seven Hills Chamber Music Festival, August 14, 2024
Violins: Akemi Takayama, Christi Salisbury
Viola: Greg Williams
Cello: Diana Golden
Zydeco is Creole-based music indigenous to Louisiana. The lead instrument of a Zydeco band is accordion and the music itself over the years has integrated a wide variety of popular music forms. Rather than trying to copy the sound or instrumentation of a Zydeco band, the emphasis is on rhythm.
String Quartet No. 3: Patterns of Change (1997)
Instrumentation: 2 vns, vla, vc
Duration: 8:00
String Quartet No. 2: Up to the Sky (1988)
Instrumentation: 2 vns, vla, vc
Duration: 12:00
The title was originally given to me by my son, who at the time of writing this piece was three and a half years old. I was looking for a way to describe the motion of the musical lines in this piece constantly striving upwards.
When he threw a ball high into the air he would say it went "up to the sky". Serendipitously, around the same time, I found this poem in one of his poetry books and borrowed a line from it for the title. I feel the poem evokes the mood of this quartet.
From
FIREFLY
I think
if you flew
up to the sky
beside the moon,
you would
twinkle
like a star.
Li Po
String Quartet No. 1: Streams (1984)
Instrumentation: 2 vns, vla, vc
Duration: 6:30
1st Performance: Harrington String Quartet, Amarillo, TX - January 31, 1988.