david horne
Subterfuge
(2002)
4'
first performance: October
3, 2002
venue: Dartmouth
College, Hanover, New Hampshire
performer(s): Brentano
Quartet
scoring: string quartet
click here for pdf of score
(1st 12 pages)
programme note:
Subterfuge takes as its inspiration the 6th work in
the Art of Fugue, "in the French style." It was initially quite hard for
me to decide on a particular fugue, as I felt that all of them would have
provided a valuable creative ignition, but in the end chose the 6th because
of what I considered to be its rhythmic vitality. Rhythm, in turn, is one
of the main driving forces in my own work, which also draws on much of the
thematic material of the Bach. With regard to the latter, this is absorbed
into my own style to the extent that the link may seem quite tenuous at first.
Indeed, much of my own compositional process here is about covering the original
Bach elements in my work- hence the title. The actual opening pitches of
the Bach however are used as the backbone of the whole of my own piece, and
this is probably more apparent to the listener, serving almost as a remnant,
or a reverberation, of the Bach. In addition, these pitches are scattered
throughout Subterfuge serving as starting focal points for the various sections.
I find the Bach both dense and lucid in a manner that conveys a tremendous
amount of energy. In my own humble way, I've tried to reflect this energy
in my own work, hopefully gaining the maximum energy from the smallest amount
of material.
The work is dedicated to the Brentano String Quartet, whose virtuosity
and musicianship is simply phenomenal, and who play my own recently completed
piece as if they'd known it forever
David Horne 2002
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