Program Note

A moiré pattern is an interference pattern in art and mathematics that is created when one image is overlaid with another similar, semitransparent image.  The resulting patterns can vary when changing the degree of rotation of the second image.  In the first movement, Gradient Shapes, I envisioned various figures overlapping, twisting, and morphing into new ones.  On a large scale, the movement is about a battle between stability and instability, similar to the way that distortion can weave in and out when rotating images in a moiré pattern.  It is bookended with settled tones, but in the middle, it goes on a journey of interference and restructuring.  Stability tries to return, but it is shut down by waves of detuned pitches, canonic-like passages, and emerging new patterns.  The second movement, Scribble, continues to explore shifting patterns.  Eerie harmonies hover and weave like overlaid, scribbled pictures that churn slowly, but they also transition into fast grooves that constantly change.

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I wrote this work for my students in the Six Four Quartet at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA, and am thrilled that we were able to premiere it at the 2019 NASA Region 2 Conference!