Da Capo Chamber Players: Joel Lester, violin; Patricia Spencer, alto flute; Allen Blustine, clarinet; Helen Harbison, cello; Edward Murray, Conductor; Stradivari Quartet: Allen Ohmes, violin; John Ferrell, violin; William Preucil, viola; Charles Wendt, cello

Brian Fennelly writes:

"Evanescences was composed in 1969 for the Aeolian Chamber Players, who premiered it at the Bowdoin College Contemporary Music Festival in May of that year. The tape component consists entirely of electronically generated material and was realized with the Buchla modular system at the New York University School of the Arts. Portions of the tape music were later incorporated into Three Pieces for Tape, also completed in 1969.

“Compared to my multi-sectioned Wind Quintet, which explores tempo modulation and multiplicity and the linear possibilities of the medium within a twelve-tone pitch structure, the more reflective style of Evanescences stands at an opposite pole; here timbral considerations have high priority — the sonorities of the individual instruments in their various modes of sound production as well as instruments in combination.

William Hibbard writes:

“My String Quartet, composed at the request of the University of Iowa's Stradivari Quartet, was completed in December 1971. It is my most extensive work involving serial interrelationships of pitch and rhythm, a dominant concern of my recent compositions. In particular, an investigation of modular redefinitions of pitch content, intervallic structure, and rhythmic groupings provided the initial thrusts of my pre-compositional activity. This led to considerations of harmonic stability and mobility, a potential resource of the time point system as initially formulated by Milton Babbitt, where the varying rhythmic structures within the length of the measure would have considerable harmonic import — a function, furthermore, not entirely dissimilar to that in traditional tonality.

This title, originally issued on the CRI label, is now available as a burn-on-demand CD (CD-R) or download in MP3/320, FLAC or WAV formats. CD-Rs come in a protective sleeve; no print booklet or jewel case included. Full liner notes are accessible via the link above.