060B4CAF-9580-46E5-8B3E-37CE4E4AA9AB

Update Delete

ID060B4CAF-9580-46E5-8B3E-37CE4E4AA9AB
TitlecodeX504034
Title NameWhispers of Mortality: String Quartet No. 4
Marketing CopyA deeply personal and programmatic work depicting outrage and the passage of time against the ominous voice of mortality itself.
InstrumentationString Quartet
CommissionCommissioned by Concert Artists Guild for The Miami String Quartet. First Prize Winner of the 1992 Concert Artist Guild New York Competition.
Dedication(not set)
Program NotesFrom Opera Today interview, Sep. 2010:

I was writing about my wife’s cousin, who was extremely ill, and I was fairly young, and had never done that before. I didn’t usually like the idea of writing about something in my personal life that was upsetting, and then turning it into a piece. In this case I couldn’t help it — I was doing it anyway. I had a commission to write a string quartet, and this is all we were talking about at home. I decided to try to deal with it in the piece, because I figured if that’s what I am thinking about, I should write about it. Interesting things happened. One of them was when I decided that the cello would be the threat of the disease, and the violin the outrage, and the second violin and the viola would be giving a sense of time passing. Though that seems programmatic, I didn’t make it into a program, but used it as a way to define the material, and its relationship to each other. The whole piece started to work that way, and it became a very strong piece — I felt it was stronger than other pieces that had come before it. The reactions of other musicians to it were very powerful, and there were people crying in the audience, even though I didn’t necessarily tell anyone what it was about. I thought there was something very real here.
Title Brand2
Year Composed1992
Copyright Number(not set)
Copyright Year(not set)
Duration18
Ensemble Size4
Date Created2008-10-31 20:32:10.000000
Date Updated2025-09-30 20:32:10
Inhouse Note(not set)
Bsc Code(not set)
Text Author(not set)
Premier Performance Memo-World Premiere. The Miami String Quartet. 1993.
Recording CreditsRecorded by Miami String Quartet, Music@Melo Live (2007).
Review(not set)
AwardsFirst Prize Winner of the 1992 Concert Artist Guild New York Competition.
Title Category10
Title Movements(not set)
Title Grade(not set)
Set Series ID(not set)
Title Instrument Category TextString Duo & Ensemble
Title Sub Category Text(not set)
Title Sub Category76
Title Instrument Header63
Title Grade Text(not set)
Clean Urlwhispers-of-mortality-string-quartet-no-4-x504034