Wie die Zarten Blüten im Winter [2016] • for string quartet

“Schönes Leben! du lebst, wie die zarten Blüten im Winter”
Friedrich Hölderlin

The winter flower (the image chosen by Friedrich Hölderlin as the beginning of his poem entitled “An Diotima”) has at least two meanings, in apparent contradiction, that inspired me for the composition of this piece. In one hand, as the poet puts it, the fragility and in the other hand, the resistance while being alone and facing the hurricane (“und in frostiger Nacht zanken Orkane sich nun”). The contrasting attributs within the very core of a single object are the central topic of this work.

We can find this concept at the beginning of the piece by the succession of musical fragments with different tempos and various intentions (intense, suspended, fragile, lively, etc.) then, while these fragments become larger and more stable, by accentuations, speed changes or timber variations.
Another way of translating this poetical image into a musical level, was the settlement of a discourse based on the overlapping, or the transition, of harmonic and in-harmonic sounds (from a spectral point of view). Thus, we can see different instruments proposing simultaneously various degrees of “harmonicity”, or just one instrument slowly modifying its timber by a certain extended technic, changing its harmonic composition.
Finally, the conception and development of the musical material is also inspired by the idea of synthesis between fragility and resistance, using delicate and unstable ways of playing that, thanks to their persistance in time and micro variations, we can observe and understand from different angles.

Diotima String Quartet

YunPeng Zhao. VIOLIN 1
Constance Ronzatti VIOLIN 2
Franck Chevalier VIOLA
Pierre Morlet CELLO

Festival Musica 2016