Multitude, Solitude (2013) - For String Quartet

Instrumentation For String Quartet Program Note “Multitude, Solitude” focuses on the presence of multitude in a moment of solitude. It is inspired by a vivid memory on Aldeburgh Beach, which I visited in the summer of 2012. Aldeburgh is a small town on England’s eastern coast, sitting along the North Sea, home to both fishermen and Benjamin Britten’s Aldeburgh Festival, in which I was participating. One dusk I walked alone on the shingle beach, seagulls calling forlornly, circling overhead, their paths gracefully crisscrossing high in the sky, while the North Sea beckoned, crashing resonantly on the pebble shore. I was captivated by the peacefulness and beauty of the moment, the solitude I felt, but also by the multitude that accompanied me. Two or three gulls flew overhead, and then hundreds more joined, creating a dense constellation of birds, reaching as far up as I could see. The sea itself was a vast multitude, breaking on the thousands of shingles on the shore.  I take these e