Currier, Sebastian: Next Atlantis (2008) 19'
for string quartet and pre-recorded electronics
Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes for the world.
World Premiere
4/5/2009
Kilbourn Hall - Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY
Ying Quartet
Composer's Notes
The overall character of Next Atlantis, for string quartet and pre-recorded sound, is one of sustained quietude, peacefulness, and serenity, but with a sense of emptiness and loss not far off. It is an elegy for a future that must not happen: New Orleans has been submerged under water. Sounds of water, both above and below the surface, pervade the piece. The water is an idealized water, often electronically sculpted into melodies and chords. The string orchestra maintains a dialogue with these muted sounds. The orchestra imitates the sounds of water and the water itself takes on vestiges of the players’ harmonies. Intertwined with these sounds is the faint, ghostly echo of fragments from Bourbon Street Parade, here subdued into quiet disembodied strains that rise to the surface like bubbles from a sunken shipwreck. It is a new Atlantis, not of the mythic past, but one of the too possible future.
— Sebastian Currier
Reproduction Rights:
This program note may be reproduced free of charge in concert programs with a credit to the composer.
for string quartet and pre-recorded electronics
Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes for the world.
World Premiere
4/5/2009
Kilbourn Hall - Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY
Ying Quartet
Composer's Notes
The overall character of Next Atlantis, for string quartet and pre-recorded sound, is one of sustained quietude, peacefulness, and serenity, but with a sense of emptiness and loss not far off. It is an elegy for a future that must not happen: New Orleans has been submerged under water. Sounds of water, both above and below the surface, pervade the piece. The water is an idealized water, often electronically sculpted into melodies and chords. The string orchestra maintains a dialogue with these muted sounds. The orchestra imitates the sounds of water and the water itself takes on vestiges of the players’ harmonies. Intertwined with these sounds is the faint, ghostly echo of fragments from Bourbon Street Parade, here subdued into quiet disembodied strains that rise to the surface like bubbles from a sunken shipwreck. It is a new Atlantis, not of the mythic past, but one of the too possible future.
— Sebastian Currier
Reproduction Rights:
This program note may be reproduced free of charge in concert programs with a credit to the composer.
Mailing List
Sign up for news updates and offers via email
SIGN UP
Featured Publication
Britten: War Requiem
Britten's pacifist masterwork, combining war poetry by Wilfred Owen with the Latin Requiem Mass, is included in the Masterworks Library of full scores, ideal for conductors, students and music lovers.
READ MORE