spin

SPIN (1998) Purchase Online

Premiere: May 16, 1999, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (chamber music series)
Duration: 13’

Instrumentation: String quartet

Program Note:
Spin was composed early in 1998. Each of the work’s three movements assumes the task of exploring a different meaning of the title. The first movement, Gyre (as in gyroscope), has the character of a whimsically spinning object in a sort of arena - spinning and bouncing off the walls (like a spinning penny, which bounces off of an object unpredictably and with somewhat explosive force). The primary musical idea consists of high harmonics in the violins set against a rocking pulse in the lower strings. This basic texture is explored in various guises as the movement progresses.

Web is essentially a slow movement. It explores a nearly static, sinewy texture comprised of slowly undulating chords. Snippets of melody emerge from the notes held while the chords disappear. The music intensifies, leading to an expected climax (or anti-climax) of pizzicatos, before returning to the opening material and winding gently to a close.

Like Gyre, the third movement, Spiral, explores a kinetic notion of spinning, this time in the form of rapidly rising scales. The formal idea of this movement, however, has the character of a spiral, with its tendency toward implosion.

Spin was written for violinist Baird Dodge.

– James Matheson