Streams
William Susman
About this work:
"Streams" was first performed by the Harrington Quartet in Amarillo Texas and subsequently given its NYC premiere at the 92nd Street Y in 1987.
Much of Susman's work from the early 80s explores Fluid Mechanics and the photos from Milton Van Dyke's "An Album of Fluid Mechanics". Space, time, intensity and viscosity are properties of fluid mechanics. Susman drew correlations between these properties and those of acoustics applying them to music composition. An early use of repetitive rhythms and melodic lines can be heard that look forward to his work with Shepherd tones and subsequently the development of his sound in the 90s with montuños.
One such approach was creating a harmony in quarter-tones and clusters with quarter-tone intervals. This sound combined with a harsh and arresting rhythmic drive propel mnay of these early scores e.g., Streamlines (1984), and his grand orchestral divisi work Pentateuch (1983/84).
Many of the titles of these works from his 20s owe their names to fluid mechanics such as Trailing Vortices (1986) Streams (1984), Streamlines (1984), and Turbulence (1983) for solo flute.
It is apparent that the European formalistic and sonic tendencies of Penderecki, Xenakis and Ligeti all had a strong influence on Susman's early 20s. He ultimately moved away from this Eurocentric approach to a broader world view of sound and rhythm in the 90s and beyond.
"Streams", written in 1984, was his 1st String Quartet. He has subsequently written three more, each one a summation of his sound and musical philosophy at a given point in his life.
The other three quartets are "Up to the Sky" (1988), "Patterns of Change" (1997), and "Zydeco Madness" (2006).
Year composed: 1984
Duration: 00:06:30
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:String Quartet
Instrumentation: 2 Violin, 1 Viola, 1 Cello
Instrumentation notes: Extended string techniques, quater-tones