Passion’s Continuum

Composition process and background information, commissioned and composed for the Cassatt String Quartet.

NOTE: these electroacoustic sketches and MIDI renditions are not exact renditions of the written scores, instead they are meant to provide a context for the work’s composition process, and to inform and inspire the performance choices arrived at during the rehearsal process of the performers. Which also, in turn, inspired new versions of the work until a “final” performance ready version is achieved.

This movement is based upon the rhythms and harmonies loosely derived from spectral analyses of chapel bells recorded in the Italian Abruzzo, the region where my father was born. 

These are the three bells from a church in Abruzzo, Italy, that were subjected to spectral analysis (via Audacity) and used to inspire harmonies, and transcribed with a focus on rhythm, dynamic curve, and other gestures used to inspire string articulation and bowing.

This first sample inspires bars 1-8

Church bells from Abruzzo 1

This second sample inspires bars 9-17

Church bells from Abruzzo 2

This third sample inspires the bell at bar 18; but quickly shifts to the entrance of two and then three bells, informs the rest of the movement (in an inexact way…)

Church bells from Abruzzo 3

This is a MIDI rendition of “On Chapels of Doom” from the Finale file

This movement imagines the string quartet as a kind of illusory glockenspiel or other collection of dreamed-up bell-like sounds that leverage muted natural and artificial harmonics interspersed with pizzicati open strings.

“The Tinkling of Orchestral Bells” is based upon a keyboard improvisation from around December 20, 2022

This movement is derived from the spectra of various timpani gestures, struck, rolled, and transposed. I then imagined these sounds bouncing throughout the stone buildings and alleyways of medieval Siena late at night; a city where I spent the summers between 2000 and 2006. These gestures then give way to a series of slow moving but energy filled violin drones, which create a kind of meditation before once again giving way to the conflicts of the timpani booms.

Several timpani samples were subjected to spectral analysis (via Audacity) to inspire harmonies, and transcribed with a focus on rhythm, dynamic curve, and other gestures used to inspire string articulation and bowing. In addition, several string drones were sampled and layered during the composition process.

Electroacoustic sketch that inspired the composition of “Our Conflicts Carom Close to Violin Drones”

MIDI rendition from the Finale file of “Our Conflicts Carom Close to Violin Drones”

This movement references the acoustic envelope and spectra of several cymbals, and miscellaneous metallic devices, struck and scraped in various ways. These gestures serve as bookends to a sorrowful cello solo.

The following audio file presents the electroacoustic sketch that inspired “On a Cello of Sorrow, Cymbals Will Harrow.” In it you will hear several samples of cymbals and metallic percussion that were subjected to spectral analysis (via Audacity) and used to inspire harmonies, and transcribed with a focus on rhythm, dynamic curve, and other gestures that suggested string articulations and bowing. Layered on these percussion samples is a MIDI rendition of the cello solo, which evolved from several keyboard improvisations.

Electroacoustic sketch of “On a Cello of Sorrow, Cymbals Will Harrow”

MIDI rendition from the Finale file of “On a Cello of Sorrow, Cymbals Will Harrow”