Spring Rain

Revised Version 2004. Commissioned by: Performing Arts Fund NL, at the request of the Camilli Kwartet, Daniel Kwartet, Franciscus Kwartet, Párkåny Kwartet, Raphael Kwartet, Utrecht String Quartet “Lenteregen (Spring Rain) was written at the request of six string quartets, who, around 2000, had conceived a plan of organizing their own chamber music circuit in a number of country estates in the Netherlands. Despite the programmatic title, the piece is composed as an abstract work. The composer steps aside to allow the listener to harmonize the title with the music however they wish. The piece has a light-footed character with transitions that are both smooth and abrupt. A trail is followed for eight minutes, in which there’s an important role for the repetition of musical elements on a large and small scale. The musical syntax is very similar to that of the Viennese classics, but has been derived in an entirely different way, namely through the use of fractals. (These are structures with a recurring repetition pattern; just think of the picture within a picture on a Droste tin.”