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Reticule (1988) |
Reticule is virtually identical to the solo for first violin which opens my string quartet 'I open and close'. It is dedicated to Roger Redgate, who gave the first performance in London in 1990. The composition is formed from a network of trajectories over the instrument, especially for the left hand, so that the anatomy of the player/instrument/sound relationship is made the material of the music. This is a common feature to most of my compositions of recent years, particularly where bowed strings are concerned; in reticule it is applied to a monologue-like structure of urgent, quasi-vocal phrases separated by breath-pausesö or transmission breakdowns, utilising an extensive vocabulary of multiple-stopping techniques.
© Richard Barrett December 1992