Differences Within Oneness

c. 17 min

Commissioned by Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University and Arditti Quartet

violin, viola, cello

Imagine the sounds that one giant string instrument can make! I have long been attracted to the intriguing beauty of heterophony, which I would described as “difference within oneness,” or “complexity growing out of similarity”. In writing this piece, my idea was that at the beginning, the string quartet acts like one gigantic instrument that later splits and evolves into four individuals. The four players, alternating between acting as one instrument and as four, perform the ten-movement piece without pausing in between. In doing so, the quartet embarks on a musical journey that explores explosive energy, theatrical characters and gesture, and interwoven sound texture, as well as contrasting materials such as timbre, momentum, melodic contour, and the details of contrast between sound and silence.

–Kui Dong