ng4 quartet: keith rowe / anthony taillard

Varshavskoye shosse, 37, P.O. Box 43, 115127 Moscow, Russia, info@mikroton.net, www.mikroton.net
K
MIKR
OTON
GS
RDIN
RECO
NG4 QUARTET:
KEITH ROWE / ANTHONY
TAILLARD / EMMANUEL LEDUC /
JULIEN OTTAVI
A QUARTET FOR GUITARS
CAT.NO. Mikroton CD 27
EDITION 300
FORMATCD
01 Affetuoso E Sostenuto [1:00]
02 Ineptitude [8:54]
03 Awkward [9:00]
04 Gaucheness [8:56]
05 Underwhelm [8:51]
06 Failing [8:55]
Keith Rowe guitar, electronics,
composition
Anthony Taillard guitar, electronics
Emmanuel Leduc guitar, electronics
Julien Ottavi guitar, electronics
Recordings made during December 2013
Edited by Keith Rowe and Julien Ottavi
Mastered by Julien Ottavi
Executive producer: Kurt Liedwart
Can you say something about a quartet
for guitars?
Hmm. Where to start?
the Lyndsay String Quartet performing
this third movement, seeing… the first
violinist Peter Cropper gulping in air,
holding his breath, contorting his face,
utterly immersed in the moment, we
watch the sensitivity of each movement,
the communication within the group, this
is how we are going to play, this is how
we going to relate to the score, but no!
NO!! We can’t possibly just copy their
performance, and anyhow the possibility
of attempting to enter the tradition of the
classical string quartet world would be
delusionary.
work right alongside a Haydn Quartet
for comparison?
Yes, you’re correct, but on recognizing
and accepting our failure in this regard
we could become inspired by how Haydn
constantly broke the rules, we set about
to explore fresh areas of responses
like ineptitude, awkward, gaucheness,
underwhelm and failing.
Well let’s start with why “Affetuoso
e sostenuto”? And what about those
track tittles: “Ineptitude”, “Awkward”,
“Gaucheness”, “Underwhelm” and
“Failing”?
Google “Affetuoso e sostenuto” and
probably a reference to Haydn will appear
on the screen, a nine minute section
from his String Quartet Op. 20. No. 1 (
the third movement). For the musicians
on this recording after an examination
of the score their very first instruction
was to listen to and watch a recording of
That’s true, but haven’t you in the past
said we (all of us) need to place our
So the track tittles don’t relate to each
track, but are an indication of areas
of responses? But I hope you don’t
mind me saying… they seem very
uncomplimentary…insulating even!
Hmm… yes I understand that, but I wanted
to escape the descriptions of gorgeous
NG4 QUARTET:
KEITH ROWE / ANTHONY
TAILLARD / EMMANUEL LEDUC /
JULIEN OTTAVI
A QUARTET FOR GUITARS
CAT.NO. Mikroton CD 27
Varshavskoye shosse, 37, P.O. Box 43, 115127 Moscow, Russia, info@mikroton.net, www.mikroton.net
K
MIKR
OTON
GS
RDIN
RECO
or beautiful, stunning, striking, arresting,
prepossessing, captivating, bewitching,
beguiling, engaging, charming, charismatic,
enchanting, appealing, delightful,
irresistible.
Yes exactly! The track tittles are the
responses.
But why do you feel the need to escape
from these responses?
The score is nine one minute strips, played
in any order, then repeated over and over
in different orders. Spread across the nine
minutes there are twenty two motives and
twenty eight spaces, the choice of a nine
minute duration was Haydn Op. 20 Affetuoso
E Sostenuto, and to encourage endless
variations and development also tips a hat
in the direction of the father of the string
quartet.
Oh! It seems so easy to shove the disc into
the player and respond with “Gorgeous!” or
“Fascinating, darling!” I’m not interested in
reading a description of the music, but would
rather it was ripped apart, examined, rejected
or accepted, understood to see what it is
saying. How it relates to Sturgeons’ law, tear
it apart delve into its innards, get your hands
dirty, fail. Again and again.
Do you mean you are looking for
unwanted zones or expressions? A
possible response on listening might be a
sense of awkwardness of uncertainty? Of
maybe not knowing?
Maybe you could say something about the
score and its structure?
How did you rehearse the piece? Were
there any particular ways to visualize the
score?
We gave ourselves a year to rehearse,
sometimes spending an evening just dealing
with a single “click” examining the range
of how dry or wet a click might be, if there
was a single approach. It might have come
through a quote from a Zizek article where
Deleuze refers to Proust description of
Vinteuit’s music that haunts Swann “as if
the performers not so much played the little
phrase as executed the rites necessary for
it to appear” upper most in our mind was to
question the role of composition as a vehicle
to be flashy showy and brilliant, we wanted
the material to be stripped and laid bare, its
rawness exposed, allowing the figurations
to freely circulate, to play in such a way
that one would be capable of discerning the
echo of the non-played. (That’s a quote from
somewhere… But where?)
So… did you succeed or fail?
Hell, no! Of course, not!!!