Logarithms of a Landscape (2025)

For String Quartet
Duration: 11 minutes
First performed by the Bergamot Quartet, September 14, 2025

Movement I – Fast and intense

Movement II – Slow and sad (Dance #1)

Movement III – Very fast (Dance #2)

Movement IV – Moderately – Fast, scherzando

Movement V – Fluent and placid (Dance #3)

Movement VI – Very slow – Even slower

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.