Stefan Wolpe - String Quartet @pelodelperro

Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

String Quartet (1969)

I. ♩ = 92
II. ♩ = 144 [8:08]

Curtis Macomber, violin
Theodore Arm, violin
Toby Appel, viola
Fred Sherry, cello

In today’s aesthetics, brilliantly managed densities weigh a great deal. The use of densities means the opening of sources hidden in the material. One must purge oneself of certain aspects of contemporary writing which have been used so much that they have lost their significance and exploitability. This means, for instance, that in the composition of my String Quartet (1969) the elimination of simultaneities of movement became an open problem to work at. Everything multiple had to be put under control. Movement and directions of the multiple layers of language had to be re-engaged with the new control. --Stefan Wolpe

Art by Emmi Whitehorse

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$Kasper T Toeplitz - Lärmesmitte Lärmesmitte, for solo basscomputer (2006) At the turn of the century – of the millennium – I almost completely abandoned the electric bass, my instrument of choice until then, which seemed to me too rooted in a 20th century history, too subject to guitar rites, not sufficiently in touch with the now, to use only the computer as a stage instrument, for live performances. Using the computer as my main instrument – as much an instrument for thinking about music as an instrument for the stage – has opened me up to possibilities that were previously unattainable: microtones, almost infinite polyphony, sound clouds, notions of density, registers... And then, once again, the desire to hybridize these possibilities with the bass – like a reunion – but a rethought bass, whether in its form, its electronic construction, its possibilities. Another consequence of working with the computer as my primary instrument has been my growing fascination with noise, to the point of making it, in its various forms and colors (white, black, grey, fractal...), my sole sound source – filtered, sculpted, worked on in real time – theres no question of broadcasting sounds prepared in silence. Everything happens within the time frame of the music. Kasper T Toeplitz Art by Marco Fusinato$