1st movement - Moderato Cantabile
After attending a performance of Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion, & Celeste, I was inspired by his contrapuntal treatment of the strings in the opening. My imitative material uses a very lyrical subject that at times morphs into something chaotic. But me being a tease, it's just a brief sojourn into anarchy before I return to the sweet subject of the movement.
2nd movement - Adagio non vibrato
In this slow movement, I worked towards creating a "dry" tone free of the techniques that normally shapes lyrical strings music in the traditional Romantic sense. Texturally, I preferred a more choral-like and homophonic treatment with paralellism of the harmony that gives the movement a slight twinge of the macabre.
3rd movement - Energico
Definitely the more virtuosic of the 3 movements, this finale features a lot of "sawing" of the bows. The intense rhythmic nature of the movement suddenly gives way to a change in character; the middle section decides to pay hommage to the previous 2 movements with a slower, dryer tone and entries of the individual voices in fugal manner. Later, tremolo is used in all instruments at the same time to create a mood of extreme tension. The coda is the ultimate contrast from the rest of the movement since it features a very foreboding, non-rhythmic tone.
- Frank Horvat
