O Mary: A Prayer for the Year of the Insane (2002-2018)
for string quartet (2002/rev. 2011)
OR
for amplified string quartet (2005)
12 minutes
Commission/Premiere Info: Composed for the Arditti Quartet
Performed by The Lyris Quartet (Alyssa Park, violin; Shalini Vijayan, violin; Luke Maurer, viola; Timothy Loo, cello)
Original 2002 recording available on IRCAM HERE.
Program Notes
O Mary is based on the text translation of a poem by Anne Sexton into a microtonally-inflected complex language for strings. Composed for the Arditti Quartet, this work was written for the Acanthes Festival, Avignon-Villeneuve, France and the space where it was premiered - the ancient ruins of the 6th Century Chartreuse Monastery across the bridge from Avignon, near the Papal Palace founded by Pope Innocent VI in 1356.
Having been in residence in Avignon (Messiaen’s birthplace) the previous summer, I noticed that birds would swoop into the open ruins of Chartreuse during concerts when certain pitches, intensities, harmonies were evoked. I composed this work in homage to those birds, to Messiaen, and to the tragedies this ancient space witnessed -- and sure enough, during the premiere performance the bird swooped down and began to cry. The amplified version of this work was premiered by Ethel (2005) and complete revised version by JACK Quartet (2011).
Purchase
To purchase the scores and parts, email Pamela Madsen directly at pmadsen@fullerton.edu.
Performances
May 3, 2018 | Lyris Quartet at UCLA’s Popper Hall
April 28, 2018 | Lyris Quartet at Hear Now Music Festival, First Lutheran Church of Venice
March 11, 2006 | Ethel Quartet at Meng Concert Hall, Cal State Fullerton
July 21, 2002 | Eglise de la Chartreuse, IRCAM Performance
Perusal Score
Press