Four Little Sketches for string quintet - Score and Parts PDF

From the composer:

The Four Little Sketches were written during my residency at the Bloomingdale School of Music as part of my residency with Con Edison's Exploring the Metropolis program. It was commissioned by the Bloomingdale School of Music.

I chose the ensemble string quintet with two cellos because I wanted something a little richer than a string quartet, but just as nimble. As this was a commission for young musicians, I thought it would be good to set up the piece in short movements, each introducing various contemporary techniques (quarter-tones, special bow techniques, unsynchronized parts etc.) in small doses. ​​

​The first movement, The Neighbors, is literally taken from the experience of composing this music in my apartment while banging noises and music filtered through the walls, constantly interrupting me. (This is a typical New York problem, so I'm sure most people can relate!) The second movement, Currents, is a metaphor for a kind of flowing, as in a river or electrical current. The third movement is untitled a study in harmony and color, this movement explores a particular chord based upon the overtone series (the collection of frequencies present in most tones, including these string instruments). The final movement, Alarm, relates to the first and second movements, but is much more aggressive in nature, representing another phenomenon which we all know: car alarms which blare out of nowhere, briefly interrupting the serenity of my New York day. The piece was premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2013 by A4TY.

17 pages (score); duration 5'; instrumentation: 2vn, vla, 2vc