String Quartet No.3 "The Village on Stilts" (2012)
Instrumentation: 2 Violins, Viola, Cello Duration: 20 Minutes Additional Requirements: Standard mutes, scordatura (Violin II, Habanera)
The Village on Stilts was written for the Kadath Quartet in the spring and summer of 2012. The work was inspired by the transcript of a dream in which a wooden village built high above a endless abyss is destroyed by an invisible terror from the abyss. In the first movement, the townspeople are discribed as sinister and greedy, yet joyful. The town is drab and gaudy with shades of orange and brown contrasting the incessant black of the abyss. The only color comes from the hair of a mysterious red-haired girl who appears for only seconds, as if a warning of violence to come. The second movement details the slow and painful destruction of the village as it crumbles and falls into the abyss below as an unnameable monster rises up. The scene suddenly shifts in the third movement to a cliff overlooking the abyss where the dreamer sits, calm and peaceful staring down at a strange red and blue whirlpool in the abyss below.
The movements are as follows:
1. Jubilant and Gaudy Dances a. Jig b. Habanera of the Red-Haired Girl c. Jazz Ride 2. Chaos and Crumbling 3. The Cliff and the Red-Blue Maelstrom
For performance or material requests related to this work, please contact me.
Print editions of this work are available.
The Habanera of the Red-Haired Girl is also available as a chamber work separate from the quartet in an arrangement for violin and piano and can be found here.