in spaces between

in spaces between (2019)

-for String Quartet

Duration: approx. 11 minutes

Difficulty: Moderate-Advanced

Download includes full score and complete set of performance parts.

in spaces between is a meditation upon the struggle of finding inspiration to compose within the small spaces in one's life. This is an experience all composers must deal with at one time or another, yet it seems especially pertinent to the life of the working mother, who also happens to be a composer. Where is the space to allow thoughts and ideas to flow freely? What happens to one's voice when their ideas are squeezed into such narrow, tight spaces?

The work's opening chorale - naive, simplistic, hopeful - is interrupted again and again as it attempts to 'become' something. A series of episodes or variations, built upon an often disguised ground bass, explore alternate states of confinement, monotony and uncertainty, eventually giving way to inspiration.

This piece was hard work. Be it life imitating art, or vice versa, I often felt I was wrenching the notes into existence, despite my clarity of concept. Whether or not the sound world here speaks of the issue it seeks to reflect, the process of writing it certainly did.

Finally, in celebration of a 20-year association with the wonderful Zephyr Quartet, the theme for this work is borrowed from the first piece I ever composed for them, Repetito, it too a passacaglia.