Stylus (String Quartet)

Promethean Editions Verified independent store

→

Stylus is the third piece in an ongoing series of compositions based on J.S.Bach’s The Art of the Fugue collectively entitled Spring Equinox. The composer was intrigued by the poss ibility of changing the semantic continuity of Bach’s music (Contrapunctus VII) by means of strategically-placed asymmetrical repetitions. In aural terms the effect is similar to that created by the skipping of the stylus of a record-player. By using repetitions within repetitions, phasing repetitions (where the left or right bracket advances or retreats by a sixteenth-note after each iteration), and by occasionally choosing similar beginning and end points which result in continuous melodic and contrapuntal flow within a loop, he has sought to create a composition which parallels the original but nevertheless possesses a character and style of its own. Show more