String Quartet String Quartet - Level 5 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.970731
Composed by Mike Strand. Contemporary,Jazz,World. Score and parts. 36 pages. Michael M. Strand #4837117. Published by Michael M. Strand (A0.970731).
By Mike Strand, ASCAP 
I wrote this String Quartet in a composition class at the College of William and Mary in 2010. It is brief and rich with variety, and it involves a technique of mine called fracturing (see note* below). This causes the dissonance you'll hear in parts of this work.
On one occasion, when I felt stressed, I enjoyed listening to Morton Feldman's String Quartet II (1983), which lasts about 6 hours. This quiet but lovely music soothed and pacified me.
On the other hand, if you want something to energize and alert you in less than 11 minutes, this quartet may be for you -- whenever you acquire a recording of it by some lucky quartet ensemble. Have a cup of coffee with it, for insurance!
In the meantime, enjoy the audio sample, Movement I of my quartet. This alone may suffice to get you going, in only two and a half minutes.
String Quartet - William and Mary: Four movements, total time 10:45:
I. Allegro moderato (2:32)
A tango-like dance movement: Preface, Introduction, A, B, A’, C, Coda (two variations).
II. Lento (2:44)
Counting to twenty in 5-4, 4-4, and 12-8 time. 5-4 time predominates (five groups of four measures each), then 4-4 (two groups of five measures each) and 12-8 (one group of five measures). Throughout there are 72 counts per minute, with quarter notes counted in the 5-4 and 4-4 time signatures, and with dotted quarter notes counted in the 12-8 time signature. The five measures of 12-8 also introduce the theme for movement III.
Fun with three different time signatures!
III. Allegro (2:11)
Variations on a Scottish-like folk tune and fragments of it. One variation is an example of tonal pointillism. The closing measures are an extended coda based on a transformed version of the original tune.
IV. Swing (3:18)
West Coast swing tempo for the Introduction and Part A; triple swing tempo for Part B.
Note* on the fracturing technique
This is my method to produce systematically new types of dissonance and corresponding modifications and resolutions. Fracturing consists of changing pitches in a melody or chord as follows:
(a) Decide on the root note position within the staff or line of music.
(b) Represent the applicable chord in half-step notation, with the root given the value 0.
(c) Alternatively subtract and add a prescribed number of half steps from, and to, each successive number in the annotated chord (except for the root).
(d) Use the new fractured annotation to define the new pitches. The actual or implied root of the chord (tonal center) remains unchanged. The resulting new chord or melody is thus related or resolvable to the parent tonal harmony or chord.
Fracturing appears mainly in the first and third movements, with spare use in the second and fourth movements.
