This is my first (only) string quartet, inspired by the Monterey County Composers Forum (MCCF) plan to hire a professional string quartet for the next concert. "Through the Tulgey Wood" is the very short (2:14) result. I think of it as a short journey through unusual terrain. It was performed in the concert "Friction" on 2024 Oct 13 at Hidden Valley Music Seminars.
performed (beautifully) by Friction String Quartet:
Otis Herriel, violin
Kevin Rogers, violin
Mitso Floor, viola
Doug Machiz, piano
See the scoreÂ
See the video of the performance.
Or just listen on SoundCloud
"Through the Tulgey Wood" is a very short (2:14) piece for string quartet. The structure is rather elaborate, but the result suggests to me a journey through unknown and unusual terrain; hence the title taken from Lewis Carroll's poem Jabberwocky. Technical details: The notes are all in a nonstandard diatonic scale that repeats not at the octave but at the ninth, so certain phrases can only appear in certain octaves. This results in the quartet exploring a very wide pitch range; the highest parts use artificial harmonics. The rhythms use interlocking layers of Fibonacci durations: the theme rhythm is 2 1 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 1 2; lower levels use 2s & 3s, 3s & 5s, etc.