Lois V Vierk

for string quartet

ca. 24'13"

Into the Brightening Air dates originally dates from 1994, but was revised in 1999. It was conceived as a dance piece for Karen Bamonte Danceworks W (despite its considerable abstraction, the rhythmic thrust and harmonic openness of Vierk's music make it especially successful for dance, rather like Stravinsky's). This work shows the most recent development in her music, embodied in the music's flow. The piece creates the by-now expected accumulation of energy in its opening minutes, but then, even as it grows in density, it also begins to slow down and open up, and we find ourselves in a new landscape, more spacious and generous than we had known before. While not following a traditional format, the music does seem to exist in some sort of multi-movement form, played without pause. Perhaps this trajectory is derived from the Yeats poem "The Song of the Wandering Aengus", which inspired the title: in the poem the writer catches a "silver trout" which metamorphoses into a "glimmering girl" and "faded through the brightening air", leaving him with a lifelong sense of loss and yearning.

--Robert Carl

Recording is by: 

 Eva Gruesser, violin

Patricia Davis, violin

Lois Martin, viola

Bruce Wang, cello

from CD:

Tzadik 7056 "Lois V Vierk: River Beneath the River"

Click here to view the CD on Tzadik.

Click here to view the score and listen to the music.