obscured-distorted-redacted (2012)

string quartet

written for JACK string quartet

obscured-distorted-redacted begins with a single gesture and through various processes, it transforms, takes shape, but whose identity is always in a state of becoming, as if it was a rock, shaped by weather, as the piece progresses. The title of this piece refers to compositional processes related to the initial glissando gesture: a musical shape that emphasizes the physicality of instrumental playing. The piece exploits the momentum and the constancy of the glissando in order to produce a sense of grueling relentlessness. And instead of creating a musical foil to this gesture, it remains singular, sculpted only by the eponymous compositional processes – obscuring it at times in order to reserve its expressive potential, distorting it so as to obfuscate its identity, and redacting it, gradually erasing its existence into silence.

obscured-distorted-redacted was written for and premiered by the JACK String Quartet at the University of Vermont during a student residency in June 2012.