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Phalanx

Mårten Josjö

Phalanx has been performed in Montréal and Reykjavik…

The title “Phalanx” suggests various meanings, various groupings and gatherings; the four members of the ensemble, the sixteen strings, the forty fingers involved, the seven chords repeated through the piece. It is a kind of contemplation over “the king of ensembles” — the string quartet. Behind the scenes lures a simple Baroque concept; a harmonic fundament and a very straightforward canonic structure. This music is then played through an imaginary filter, which generates overtones and rhytmical patterns to lighten up and give variation to the chordal ostinato.

The six parts of the piece describes transitions between different positions in this imaginary effectbox but also between the chords in the framework. These “knobtwists” can be done rapidly or very slow and thus give the input either a forwardleaning or a relaxed state. You could say that this is only one of the possible outputs, so there will probably show up a “Phalanx II”. Coming to a theatre near you.

[xii-06]

Phalanx

  • Composer(s): Mårten Josjö
  • Year of composition: 2000
  • Duration: 10:00
  • Instrumentation: string quartet
Concerts
10 Octo 2006
HyvärinenJosjöLaporteMagnússonSokolović
In person
Reykjavik (Iceland)
12 Dece 2006
8:00 pm
Série QB
HyvärinenJosjöMagnússonSchubert
In person
Montréal (Québec)