By David Balakrishnan, for string quartet. As heard on the eponymously titled debut TISQ CD
Overall description of all four movements: “This is the composition that TISQ was literally formed to play. I had originally written it for three violins and baritone violin (violin with strings tuned an octave low), realizing it though playing all the parts myself. I was entirely blessed that the right players appeared in my life to allow this to take its proper shape as a string quartet, and who were ready and willing to share the journey implied. It was a door no one had yet opened, and we barged on through with wild abandon, as youngsters are wont to do.” Length: 20:00. (to purchase individual movements separately, click on the respective title below)
“This was begun in 1981, my initial point of no return searching for a musical language that might bring together the various scattered fragments of style that I had previously accumulated.”
“My father, who was born in a small village in Kerala South India, told me once about a childhood experience, a family member had died and all the women in the village had gathered and making this eerie sound, “eooo,” “eooo…”. That stuck in my mind as a vague unsettling sense of grief-stricken disembodiment, that I am trying to evoke in this piece.”
III. Variations On My Father’s Footsteps
“This is the first piece I wrote using the chop technique that I had learned from Darol Anger. Also of the first of my string quartet pieces to be clearly influenced by the music of India.”
“A good friend came up with this name, in reference to my admittedly inelegant feet, references the toe tapping vibe of this movement.”