Pléonasme, string quartet (9 minutes)

• Premiere performance by the Arditti String Quartet
  30 June 2012 Espace de Projection, IRCAM Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

Pléonasme was composed specifically for the technical facilities and explosive virtuosity of the Arditti string quartet. The work places the members of the ensemble into various dialogic oppositions as they struggle to project shifting musical densities through myriad improvised strategies. The piece mimics the dynamics of human conversational encounters and is therefore amenable to any number of morphologically equivalent programmatic interpretations. Pléonasme is dedicated to the composer’s two small children whose innocence and wonder continually inspire fresh insights on the seemingly mundane features of the ordinary world.