Still Life (1986)
for guitar quartet

 

Premiere performance: JMU Guitar Quartet, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, 1986

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COMPOSER'S NOTE
Still Life was composed in 1986 when I was a student at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. In this piece, scored for guitar quartet, I was exploring my sense of harmonic language at the start of creating a compositional style that would develop through the years of my composing career. In its essence, the piece is a blend of traditional tonalities and quartal/quintal harmonies intermingled with more dissonant harmonic language. The piece’s melodic construction is thus quasi tonal with more angular, chromatic aspects in the mix. From the beginning of the piece, a stately and declamatory voice permeates the air, balanced by low, weighty chords. The final section of the piece celebrates the austere simplicity of Philip Glass and Steve Reich (among others), who, at that time, were exploring minimalism in musical composition and making an indelible mark on musical history.