Programme Note
My String Quartet ‘Towards Silence’ was commissioned by Carol Nixon. It was intended that the world premiere of the piece would be given on her 75th birthday in 2020 but the health emergency intervened. The delayed premiere was given by the Solem Quartet on October 19th 2021
There was just one stipulation in the commissioning brief – namely that the work in some way reflect the crisis of the extinction of species on our planet. But the nature of the piece was also coloured by the onset of the global pandemic and the fact that it was written during a long winter lockdown. This sombre backcloth being somewhat at odds with the birthday celebration, it was some time before I had a sure sense of the nature of the piece and, even when I did, progress was slow and painstaking.
The title of the piece refers to the way that music approaches and interacts with silence. The core of the work is the second movement – Towards Silence -where the same musical material is played three times. With each repetition the musical texture is thinned out until, like a garment that is unpicked, it no longer holds together. There are also long silences within as well as between sections.
On either side of the Towards Silence movement are two sections characterised by a walking pulse. These are titled Winter Journey 1 & 11. There is also a brief Epilogue – ‘With Stars’ suggestive of galaxies and universes where there is no humankind. So the four sections of the work are as follows:
Winter Journey 1
Towards Silence
Winter Journey 11
Epilogue – ‘With Stars’
Much of the music is extremely quiet and spare and the work makes use of ‘practice’ as well as standard mutes. Despite the sombre subject matter and the time of its composition I hope that it is still an affirmative work worthy of the remarkable patron of the arts, Carol Nixon, who commissioned it.
Finally, thanks to the wonderful Solem Quartet who generously contributed technical advice during the creative process and gave the world premiere.
Note by the composer
October 2021