VSTO (string quartet)
VSTO is a string quartet by Alvin Curran. It was released on the album Schtyx (CRI: 1994), performed by a quartet led by David Abel of the Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio.[1]
Written for choreographer Trisha Brown, Curran writes: "As students, Elliott Carter said we could do anything but write octaves; here the octave rules like Gurdjieff. It is an interval that goes absolutely nowhere even when it goes up and down..."[1] Richard Friedman elaborates, "Octave consonance trades with calm dissonance, and even some twisted shtetl tunes [klezmer]," and quotes Curran: "there is nothing to understand here...just let it happen."[2] Another review wonders about the specific location: "Russian (Ukrainian? Polish?)"[3]
The original piece, written in memory of Giacinto Scelsi (house address: Via San Teodoro Otto, Rome), is from 1988, a revision from 1994, and is now in version 2.5.[2] Version 1 lasts eighteen minutes and was premiered by the Silesian String Quartet in Berlin in 1989; the long version (2) was premiered in 1993 by the Soldier String Quartet in New York to accompany Brown's Another Story as in Falling; and version 2.5 was premiered by the Arditti Quartet in 2009 and lasts twenty-four minutes.[4]
The piece, for acoustic quartet, originated in a piece for electrically enhanced string quartet and computer-controlled synthesizer (For Four Or More/Four or Five) premiered by the Kronos Quartet in Darmstadt in 1986.[4]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Curran, Alvin (1994). "VSTO". Alvin Curran: Schtyx (PDF) (Liner notes). New York: CRI. p. 4. CD668. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2022.
- ^ a b "Arditti at Mills: Perfection!", Rchrd.com
- ^ Flegler, Joel (1995). Fanfare, Volume 18, Issue 5, p.178.
- ^ a b "List of Works", AlvinCurran.com.
External links[edit]
- "Alvin Curran: Schtyx", NewWorldRecords.org.
- "Arditti Program", Mills.edu (contains Schtyx liner notes and update for version 2.5).