Loneliness in a beautiful place

a landscape of thin places no. 4

string quartet version - 2016, ca 9-10 minutes - Commissioned by The Wyoming Festival.

Premiered by musicians from The Grand Teton Festival Orchestra

(string orchestra version)

Recording by the Argus Quartet:

Instrumentation - String Quartet

2 Violins, Viola & Cello

Program Note

Beautiful places and spaces are inherently mysterious. It is this sense of mystery that imbues these places with a deep calm, especially when alone. The music in Loneliness in a Beautiful Place creates a landscape of questions with voices that hold their notes (especially trills) for a very long time, before discovering some sort of melodic answer. A chorale hints at something deeper. Near the end the music embraces the landscape, literally scaling up a mountain of notes, before returning to meditation. It is my intention here not to depict the landscape in music, but rather the sense of exploring it.