David Lidov

SONG  (for String Quartet) is one slow movement.   Through most of it, a fairly long tune and its variations predominate.  Toward the end you may remark the neutral tetrachord, a half scale that lies half way between minor and major, a scale fragment built with three-quarter tones.  I was taught that this tetrachord, in classical Persian music, conveys a metaphysical consciousness beyond joy and sorrow.  

Three Small Whole Numbers  (String Quartet)

I wrote a quartet in 1997 titled “Three Small Numbers”.  The present composition is an extensively re-written version of that one, so extensively different that a modified title felt necessary.   Though the title has been lengthened 33%, the Quartet remains short, three bagatelles.  I think it will be perfectly apparent why these numbers are named for numbers.  It is a cliché that seems very true to me that musical sense and mathematical sense have some deep relation; yet how we hear number and the hard-to-count connections of music with number remain a grand mystery.

A Brief History of I Love You is—I’m not sure which—a composition or an instrument on which a composition can be performed.  Or perhaps partly each.   Though I’ve provided a few instructions, Rick Sacks, for whom I am developing this //composition or instrument// will decide much of what you hear as he improvises on his MalletKat in accordance with his own plans.  The MalletKat is laid out like a keyboard percussion instrument such as the vibraphone or marimba, but rather than making sound directly, it sends MIDI signals to a computer.  In realizing the computer program (with MAX) I benefited from the tremendous assistance of Emilio Guim, a jazz guitarist and composer from Ecuador now studying at York University.  Like me, he was a stranger to MAX when we started, but he has rapidly become expert, fixing my errors and omissions when I am foolish enough to try things on my own. 

Eurreal “Little Brother”  Montgomery 1906-1985 was a major force in the Chicago Piano School.  He was born in Louisiana and played in saloons there from the age of 11.  He knew Jelly Roll Morton from his childhood and was influence by his style.  He settled permanently in Chicago (where he had, earlier, made his first recordings) in 1942.  By the 60’s he was widely known and played internationally.  To hear his work in an arrangement for string quartet is, we believe unprecedented.  Westcott’s selection and ingenious adaptation demonstrates the variety and reliability of Little Brother’s style.

Leon Bismark ”Bix” Beiderbecke (1903-1931) played cornet and piano and composed and is regarded as a founder of the jazz ballad style.   A decisive factor in his short life and career was his work with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, perhaps the conduit of the strong classical music influences in his style.  Bill Westcott’s medley brings together three of his signature compositions and improvisations.

Ludvig v. Beethoven’s sixth piano sonata, Op. 10 No. 2 in F, is rather short.  The three movements are marked Allegro, Allegretto and Presto.  He published this and many other early works in 1797-98, when he was 27 but probably wrote and played them a few years earlier.  Beethoven, who was quite critical of his own piano music, like this one a lot.  I’ll say a bit more before I play.