String Quartet No. 1 (2011)
“of Narcissus and Echo”
20 minutes
Program Notes
String Quartet No. 1 is a programmatic work in one movement that depicts the tumultuousness of romance through the traditional lens of a modified sonata form. The structural and emotive framework of the quartet, informed by a personal relationship gone awry, finds enigmatic details within the compositional narrative. This narrative, within the “absolute music” context of a string quartet in sonata form, is accurately represented in the Greek myth of Narcissus and Echo, from which the subtitle references. Love, infatuation, rejection, and deep yearning permeate the myth, and so influenced this work.
Conceived and written in January 2010, the quartet received its world premiere from the Sonica Quartet in May 2010. The string quartet, which received further revisions in 2011, has been met with international recognition and repeated performances in both the United States and Europe. It was described by Sabino Pena of France’s Classiquenews.com as “a true musical jewel of the 21st Century.” The quartet was awarded the EAMA Nadia Boulanger Institute Prize in (2011) the Morton Gould ASCAP Award (2011), and first place in the American Prize (2015).
Quan Yuan & Timo de Leo, Violin; Emily Deans, Viola; Jonathan Dormand, Cello
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Recent Performances
May 13, 2019 | San Francisco Conservatory of Music, CA.
December 7, 2016 | New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA. Zenas Hsu, Maria van der Sloot, violins; Leo Plashinov, viola; Micheal Dahlberg, cello.
May 6, 2015 | Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA. Li-Mei Liang, Ken Hamao, Daniel Urbanowitz, Joseph Gotoff.
October 17, 2014 | Galatea Fine Art, Boston, MA. Boston Young Composers Ensemble (aka Hub New Music).
June 6, 2014 | St. Thomas the Apostle, Hollywood, CA. Sunset ChamberFest.
May 15, 2011 | New England Conservatory, Boston, MA. Quan Yuan, Timo de Leo, Emily Deans, Jonathan Dormand.