Diversions (2016) 12'

bagatelles for string quartet

 

The first movement of this piece, All Together Now, was originally written as part of a 48-hour composition marathon sponsored by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The fantastic string quartet in residence, Thalea String Quartet, played it with such aplomb that I wrote four more bagatelles to accompany the first. This piece is dedicated to them.

​

While writing the rest of the piece, I was very much inspired by the brief and whimsical vignettes of Erik Satie’s Sports et divertissements. Subsequently, this quartet is a depiction of five short, picturesque moments or activites—perhaps, in this way, it also finds kinship with Poulenc’s droll and beautiful song cycle, Banalités.

​