Clear Creek

Around my first meeting with Verona Quartet to discuss this piece, I became into Bluegrass music.  So among several ideas I brought, was that of a piece a la bluegrass, in which everyone became fascinated!! Aren’t we Midwestern? To reflect the genre faithfully, I incorporated classic clichés of traditional bluegrass music including typical harmonic progression (that being said, this piece is a purely tonal music.), double stops with open strings, slides, and lots of pizzicati.

Verona Quartet not only performed the piece but also titled it, after “Clear Creek.” Also called Jordan River (nothing related to the biblical one), it is a creek that goes across Bloomington, Indiana, our home at the moment. Does this not sound like a bluegrass?

–Texu Kim