String Quartet No. 2: Alive in a Moment (2003)
Song Cycle for Low Voice and String Quartet
Duration: 22’
Movement Titles:
I. Rondo: O What is That Sound | II. Variations: Orpheus | III. Song: Epitaph on a Tyrant | IV. Interlude: A Moment | V. Song: The Composer | VI. Scherzo: In Moments of Joy | VII. Closing Hymn: Alive in a Moment
First Performance: Premiere: 8 October 2003 / Greaves Concert Hall, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, Kentucky / Paul Kreider, baritone / The Amernet String Quartet
Dedication: "Commissioned by Northern Kentucky University and the Amernet Society for Paul Kreider and the Amernet String Quartet, 2003."
Text: W.H. Auden (E)
Publisher: Peermusic Classical | Rental
Program Note:
Composed at the artist retreat Yaddo during July of 2003, Hagen's song cycle for baritone and string quartet Alive in a Moment functions both as an instrumental string quartet and as a traditional song cycle.
In seven movements, based on the poetry of W.H. Auden, the entire work develops three musical ideas given at the outset: a rhythmic tattoo in the violin, what the composer calls a 'smudged melody,' created by adding trills to each successive note of the melody, and heavy glissandi. Formally, the central movement is an instrumental interlude flanked parenthetically by the outer movements.
The quartet ends with a strophic setting (Closing Hymn) of the text which makes a final transformation of the work's opening theme. Commissioned by the Amernet Society and Northern Kentucky University for Paul Kreider and the Amernet String Quartet, the cycle was first performed on 8 October 2003 at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky.