SKU: HH.HH462-FSP

ISBN 9790708146711.

Cicada larvae live underground for years, creeping about slowly and peacefully in the darkness until that sudden, beautiful brief moment when, one warm, damp summer’s eve, they emerge, metamorphosed into a highly mobile life form. Gaily they dance in the sunshine, singing ardently to the trees in all their greenery --- but only for a short while, for, just as suddenly, they are gone. The same process repeats year upon year. The life cycle of this string quartet resembles that of the cicada. Initially, two embryonic cells remain hidden within dense, gloomy note-clusters; over time they evolve into buds, grow and then blossom. They appear for the first time in their adult form in the fast middle section, where they assume the shape of two very popular Chinese folk melodies, Jasmine and Old Six Blows, albeit in wholly chromaticized and defamiliarized variants. After their grand efflorescence, these forms gradually dissolve into transparent wisps of sound.

SKU: AP.12-0571569625

ISBN 9780571569625. English.

Premiered by the Takács String Quartet in 2004, Carl Vine's String Quartet No. 4 is a dark and pensive work. Split into two equal parts, this acerbic 15-minute exploration of conflict without resolution---with angular rhythmic gestures set abruptly against a brooding chorale---would make an imposing addition to any quartet's repertoire.