Logarithms of a Landscape (2026)

For String Orchestra (recommended size – approx. 6.6.4.4.2)
Duration: 13 minutes
First performed at the Turku Arts Academy (Finland), Sini Virtanen Cabaoglu, director
Note: Also in a version for string quartet

I. Fast and intense
II. Slow and sad (Dance #1)
III. Very fast (Dance #2)
IV. Moderately – Fast, scherzando
V. Fluent and placid (Dance #3)
VI. Very slow – Even slower

In his poem “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror,” John Ashbery describes New York as a “logarithm of other cities.” Logarithms distill: the logarithm of 100 is just 2; the logarithm of 1000 just 3. In a way these six short, contrasted movements for string quartet are like logarithms, too. Although each one has a distinct character, under the surface there are connections between them. I think of them as distillations (logarithms) of some larger musical “landscape,” glimpsed from different vantage points. The second, third, and fifth movements are idiosyncratic dances of various kinds; the first, an intense burst of energy; the fourth, a hymn that evolves into a playful variation on the first; and the sixth, a melancholic conclusion referencing the sound of an ancient viol consort.