Programme Notes

I/II
II/III
III/IV
IV/I

The title Slash is a reference to "slash fiction", a creative endeavour in alternate realities that has become a common feature on internet fan sites. In slash fiction, (usually amateur) writers invent (usually romantic) stories around various combinations and permutations of characters from popular culture -- Mulder/Scully, Picard/Crusher, Kirk/Spock, and so on -- each pairing separated by a slash.

This idea suggested to me a way of exploring the musically intimate nature of quartet playing. In Slash (string quartet #2), each movement is titled with a "slashed" pairing that functions on several levels. On the surface level, each movement highlights a different pair of players in the context of the full quartet -- in I / II, for example, the first and second violinists are featured. On a deeper structural level, selected musical material from each movement reappears, reinterpreted, in the following movement, and the closing gesture of each movement is reused (and again, reinterpreted) as the opening gesture of the next, creating a connected flowing stream of musical consciousness, yet with an overall integration of ideas.

As much as the idea of "slash fiction" suggests romance, the word "slash" also suggests violence, and indeed much of this music is aggressive, propulsive and even obsessive, with the added visual element of slashing motions of the bows. In the final movement, though, the music turns inward, with the players instructed to play "as breathing."

Slash (string quartet #2) is dedicated to Jennifer Taylor and the Arditti Quartet.