for String Quartet

Recorded Nov. 6, 2020

This recording is from a reading session. It is not a rehearsed performance.

Program Notes

written for the Rhythm Methods String Quartet reading session at Bowling Green State University

tripwire 16 is built on the concept of multiple evolving paths that infinitely compress inwards. The music acts as a physical shape in space, rotating multi-dimensionally—form is created through the factors of pitch, rhythm, and tempo unfolding around and compressing against each other at varying speeds. Different thematic cells become exponentially closer together in time, eventually joined by a simultaneously accelerating tempo. Pitch material extends through extremely long ascending or descending lines, moving in parallel or contrary motion, and often featuring interjecting glissandi reminiscent of Shepard-Risset. The sixteen strings of the four instruments are like tripwires, small components of a large machine that continuously spurs itself forward in symbolically eternal momentum.