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Truth
Becoming (string quartet no. 1) is based on a poem
by May Swenson called "The Process".
The string quartet “Truth
Becoming” is
inspired by the poem “The Process” by May
Swenson. The poem provides the structural underpinnings
of the string quartet. Much of the motivic material
came from setting the text of various phrases at significant
points in the poem, as if it were a song, then using
those melodies, motives, and rhythms as raw material.
The ideas of each section of the poem are also reflected
in each major section of the quartet.
The composer writes:
By living with this poem a long
time before I wrote the piece, by hearing and refining
motives as if I were going to set the text, I feel
the quartet music gained an inner consistency of harmonic
and motivic gestures that allowed each section to unfold
inevitably into the next, just as the poem takes us
to a beautiful conclusion.
This
music was written
for the
Arden
String Quartet, who played the premiere in February
2003 on the Just In Time concert series in Massachusetts.
The
poem is published in Nature: Poems Old and New by
May Swenson, Houghton Mifflin 1994, reprinted from A
Cage of Spines by May
Swenson. "The Process" is reprinted in the score
of Truth Becoming, used with permission of the Literary
Estate
of May
Swenson. See below to download a preview score.
Duration 11
- 12 minutes.
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