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In May of 2024, the Madison String Quartet, along with pianist, Itay Goren, performed the premiere of my quartet, Forest Flowers, also published by Imagine Music Publishing. Forest Flowers is a work in nine movements, each representing a particular flower that thrives in the forest. Although nine movements suggest a lengthy work, the total performance time is approximately 35 minutes. The Terra Nova Quintet, by contrast, consists of three movements with a performance time of approximately 20 minutes. Concerning movements, neither quintet follows the typical traditional classical structure of four movements, nor are the tempi typical of those traditional four movements.
One might surmise that Terra Nova represents a closer affinity to a fantasia for several reasons, namely: harmonically, the music rarely remains in one key center for any considerable time; that does not mean that it is nontonal, only that it is migrant; tempo as well as meter changes are frequent within the each movement; the dynamic curve and articulation indications serve a most important role in the representation of the title and should be observed as closely as possible.
Concerning the title, Terra Nova, meaning “new earth” or “new land,” is just that. The term can be interpreted several ways, but essentially it means “looking forward to a new earth,” or reflecting on what the earth has become. I consider the quintet to represent what earth has become, although of course, that is highly subjective. However, the fact that the music of Terra Nova implies a somewhat restive nature, a close observation of our current worldly situation, can, I believe, be viewed as a parallel with the music.
In music that is highly chromatic, quite often indicating a key signature serves only as an approximation of a key center, and as a result, numerous alterations of pitch become necessary; moreover, pitch spellings, while they should maintain a proximity to the implied key, should be spelled according to their function and to the prevailing harmony. This practice will be evident in several areas of the piece.
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