String Quartet No. 7: Surfacing

Year Composed:	2025
Instrumentation:	2 violins, viola, cello
Duration	14 minutes

Program Notes

My last three string quartets were composed virtually back-to-back over a period of two years. Perhaps naturally, I came to see the Seventh Quartet as the final instalment in a trilogy of sorts, which began with the fantastical Fifth (The Train to Improbable Places), followed by the considerably darker Sixth (...like the stars in the firmament). In my mind, the Seventh offers dramatic closure to the musical and existential questions posed by these previous quartets, while simultaneously paving the way for new horizons.

The title was inspired by a sensation I can only describe as a kind of defiant euphoria. It is the feeling of emerging from the abyss into a bright, almost impossibly open space. At times, there is a violence to this surfacing, like a gasp of air after being underwater for too long. As a metaphor for healing, it is also fragile and by no means linear, requiring both hope and resolve to sustain.

The quartet opens with the simplest of motivic units: a rising semitone, followed by the same pattern a whole step lower. Housed within the framework of a loose passacaglia, this pattern comes to dominate the entire work via a series of variations that escalate in intensity and scale as the music unfolds. Punctuated by airy silences, the initial statement of this motive takes the form of a 'poppy' chord progression, on top of which an operatic first violin soars. Subsequent variations build in energy, culminating in an explosive fugal exposition that borrows freely from Baroque idioms - the first of several stylistic left-turns into the past. Far from being ironic or nostalgic, these deviations have a searching quality, emblematic of the tension between memory and present. At times, the memory turns nightmarish; a lyrical, child-like episode in the work's central section becomes increasingly fragmented and anguished. But near the end, a new melody surfaces; set against a joyous, Celtic-influenced accompaniment, this melody - which I have dubbed the 'Robin' theme - draws the music into a rejuvenated landscape just before the piece's resolute final measures.

The creation of my Seventh Quartet took place a month after an experience which left an indelible mark on my identity and sense of purpose. In the second month of his life, my son Robin was diagnosed with a serious disease that necessitated a liver transplant - eventually made possible by my wife, who donated a portion of her liver to save his life. After half a year spent in the hospital, our family returned home intact, filled with relief and gratitude - but also battered and haunted by what we had endured. While I often prefer to keep my artistic and personal worlds separate, I cannot help but view this piece through the lens of physical and emotional recovery - one in which virtuosity, by turns searing, defiant, and joyous, lays the groundwork for catharsis.

I am grateful to the Poiesis Quartet for commissioning this work. Their electrifying presence and transcendent interpretations are a perfect complement to the spirit of Surfacing.

Commissions and Awards

• Commissioned by the Poiesis Quartet.

Performances

• July 21, 2025 - Poiesis Quartet. Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY.