Carson
Kievman
STARVING ANGELS
(Revised 2005 for the Kronos Quartet)
2005 COMPLETE REVISION - fully developed quartet focusing on the idea of child
violin soloist interacting with a professional string quartet and the spontaneous
merging of inspiration that follows.
PROGRAM:
In the beginning there was melancholy and sorrow - the child arrives &
the light grows brighter - the child leaves & sadness returns - the child
returns &the light grows brighter.
MUSICAL NOTE: A young violin soloist brings childhood reminiscence to the work
- reminding us of musical innocence lost by the demands of adulthood, when music
becomes a professional activity and loses its spontaneous enchantment. This
piece may remind us of when music making was fresh, and the darkness that descends
when that feeling is surrendered to commercial pressures.
1999
ORIGINAL TECHNICAL THOUGHTS: In writing Starving Angels (1999) I hoped
to react both to Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartets op. 33 (particularly No.
1 in B minor & No. 5 in G Major), and yet attempt maintain my own compositional
identity. However, since this is my first excursion into the unaccompanied string
quartet domain, and in light of my conversation with Haydn, I decided to limit
my objective to a set of exercises and not to presume anything more than a first
effort. Since many compositional string techniques that I have used were developed,
or exploited, masterfully by Haydn, it was not too hard to find a connection
to him. The lack of any obvious cadential material in Starving Angels
suggests the interplay of Haydn’s unique musical structures. The facile exchange
of endings with beginnings, and visa versa in Quartet No. 5 in G major ("How
do you do"), and Haydn’s humorous attempts to suggest the limits of the traditional
cadence in instrumental music during the 18th century (as represented
in the final movement of the E flat major No. 2 ("The Joke"). Additionally,
as represented by Quartet No. 1 in B min, the thematic and motivic passing of
musical phrase between instruments both to facilitate thematic development or
to give a sense of passing by altering timbral qualities of the music is something
that I frequently use when called for by the nature of a composition.
Program Notes:
By Carson Kievman
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