(2006, revised 2009)

I seem to have reached an age at which the various compositional paths I’ve explored over the years are beginning to merge and the disparate components of my language come together in ways that I would once have thought unimaginable. This subconscious process of integration has been gathering momentum for some time now. It’s particularly evident in the texture of my string quartet, Sparks and Auras, where an almost kaleidoscopic interplay of allusive cultural material has been assimilated and interfused with sounds and patterns subconsciously gleaned from the natural world. These diverse fragments interact and form associations and interdependencies not unlike organisms within an ecosystem. Some of them, which have been recurring throughout my music for years, have become deeply symbolic. There are fleeting references to one of the Christian Mary chants, for example, which I associate with the universal Earth Mother and the survival of life on the planet; and I’ve long sought to capture the passionate flame of present-centeredness that is a feature of Sufi ritual music. I suppose this repository of associations woven into a complex whole reflects my yearning for a tolerant multicultural society in tune with the natural environment.

There are three contrasting movements which have some interconnecting links. The first is mainly very animated and quite contrapuntally developmental. It grows from a lyrical, somewhat wistful pentatonic cello melody which functions as a ritornello – with some transformation and tempo fluctuation – throughout the movement, and this is associated with the Mary chant. The general tone is ardent, searing and there are sudden dramatic contrasts.

The second movement is stark, interior, with strands of fragile birdsong in the first violin over drones that symbolize a mysterious void – perhaps a valley. The cello enters – a calm human voice which later joins the violin in passionate dialogue before dissolving into a spectral miniature scherzo and returning to the mood of the opening.

There follows a robustly impulsive maninya, or dance-chant, which celebrates the earth. The sombre finale, which I added later, seems to represent a sea voyage, a resolute passage over a surging swell which accumulates fierce intensity before disappearing into a mysterious horizon.

Sparks and Auras is dedicated to Julian Burnside who commissioned it this for Musica Viva Australia. The original version of the score was premiered in 2007 by the Brentano String Quartet of New York.

Ross Edwards.

listen:

String Quartet No. 1 (Sparks and Auras) II. Poco lento

 

String Quartet No. 1 (Sparks and Auras) III. Vivo molto