Par FREEMAN ALEX. Alex Freeman found initial inspiration for his string quartet (2015) in a series of photographs a geologist friend showed him of en échelon veins in rock formations. The open strings punctuated with pizzicato unisons that begin the single-movement work call to mind something crystalline and shimmering, which is immediately infused with tumbling lyrical lines in something of a rapid caccia technique throughout. The middle of the work becomes more suspended in slower material loosely based on a technique of prolation canon, comprises layers of free, expressive, lyrical, and even elegiac music moving at different speeds. As the work concludes, the materials converge in a rhythmically pulsating stasis and an almost chorale-like statement. Duration: c. 13' This product includes the score and the parts (A4 sized). American-Finnish composer Alex Freeman (b.1972) has established himself among the foremost composers of choral music in Finland. A dedicated citizen of his musical community, a teacher, and a choral singer himself, he composes music that reflects an appreciation for a wide range of aesthetics and a passion for communicating with listeners and performers. In his choral works, in particular, we find music that aims to be sonorous, melodic, and resonant, but is always crafted to carefully avoid the cliches that can burden conventional tonality. His instrumental works run the gamut: a cantata with orchestra based on poetry of Whitman; a significant body of solo piano works that reveal deep roots in everything from austere absolute music to soaring elegaic rhetoric (see Albany Records, Inner Voice); his chamber work Blueshift (Navona Records), which is a kind of paean to Reich and Adams in miniature; open-ended modular works, like various iterations of his Slow All Clocks for electronic media, solo clarinet, and mixed choirs of kanteles; and, recently, some new directions in microtonal music. / Date parution : 2022-05-31/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Coldplay\'s mega-hit has a prominent string orchestra as part of the its unique sound captured perfectly in this performance version by Larry Moore. Students love to play current hits that have an orchestral sound mixed with the cutting-edge groove of one of their favourite bands.

In his works, Eduard Pütz (1911-2000) sought to overcome the boundaries between different genres of music. He often mixed classical elements with stylistic features from jazz and popular music. / Quatuor A Cordes

(...) L'importance que je donne à cette nouvelle partition s'inscrit en deux dimensions: la spécificité du genre musical que représente le quatuor à cordes et l'ambition du projet, exigeant en matière de musique mixte.(...) Nous avons cherché à saisir (ou capter) dans le jeu de l'instrumentiste les qualités gestuelles du phrasé de son archet pour s'en servir comme nouveaux modes de communication interactifs avec le dispositif. Nous avons placé sur les hausses des archets des puces électroniques miniaturisées, ce qui vaut au quatuor ce nom particulier de 'quatuor augmenté'. Ces miniatures sont capables de capter les qualités gestuelles des instrumentistes, dans ses paramètres de vitesse, de position, d'angle d'attaque, de hauteur d'attaque et de pression de l'archet sur les cordes. Puis nous avons élaboré un dispositif de reconnaissance et de suivi de geste permettant ainsi de façon précise et musicale, un contrôle par l'interprète des traitements sonores en temps réel.Ce sont donc les coups d'archet des instrumentistes du quatuor à cordes qui vont définir les paramètres des transformations sonores que l'on entend dans les haut-parleurs. Dans le domaine de l'interaction entre instruments acoustiques et dispositif électroacoustique live réalisée par le suivi du geste instrumental, ce qui sera une première, cette oeuvre ouvre très certainement une nouvelle page de musique. (...)Florence Baschet / Quatuor à cordes et Electronique