Matias Vestergård
STRING QUARTET NO. 3 HJERTEBLAD
(2024)
Score
STRING QUARTET NO. 3
HJERTEBLAD
(2024)
Duration: c. 13 min
Written for NOVO Quartet
With support from KODA Kultur
Full Score
Copyright © 2025 Edition Wilhelm Hansen A/S, Copenhagen
Music engraving in Sibelius by Matias Vestergård
Publisher’s editor: Katrine Gregersen Dal
Edition Wilhelm Hansen, A/S Bornholmsgade 1A 1266 København K Denmark
www.wisemusicclassical.com
PROGRAMNOTE
Min tredje strygekvartet bærer navnet ”HJERTEBLAD”, efter ordet for planters spæde og friske inderste blade. Under skriveprocessen tænkte jeg meget på den måde planter gror på, og især den måde en blomst vokser frem, falmer og siden må vige for en ny blomst. I det hele taget er meget af strygekvartettens musik mit forsøg på at skildre blomsterblades tekstur og forgængelighed i lyd.
Første sats og anden sats er inspireret af time-lapse videoer af planter der gror; i første sats breder rødderne sig under jorden mens spirende liv så småt bryder gennem jordoverfladen, og i anden sats vokser blomsterne og udfolder deres kronblade.
Tredje og sidste sats er en slags falmende efterårskoral, en vemodig afsked.
I de første to satser spiller alle fire musikere stort set den samme slags musik. Forskellen er dog, at de i første sats er fuldstændig koordinerede, mens de i anden sats spiller frit og uafhængigt af hinanden, som fire blomster der vokser op samtidig og vikler sig ind og ud af hinanden.
PROGRAM NOTE
My third string quartet bears the name ”HJERTEBLAD” (Heart-leaf) after the word for the smallest and youngest innermost leaves of plants. During the writing process I thought a lot about the way that plants grow, and especially the way a flower blooms, fades and then dies, before a new flower emerges. Actually, the whole string quartet is my attempt to render the texture and ephemerality of flower petals into music.
The first and second movements are inspired by time-lapse videos of plats growing; in the first movement, roots spread underground as sprouts slowly break through the earth, and in the second movement flowers grow and unfurl their petals.
The third and last movement is a kind of fading autumnal chorale, a melancholy goodbye.
In the first two movements, the four musicians make basically the same kinds of sounds at all times. However, in the first movement the players are completely synchronized, but in the second movement, they play freely and uncoordinated - rather like four flowers that grow up next to each other and constantly intertwine.
GENERAL REMARKS
In the second movement, I have strived for the effect of approximate coordination rather than complete synchronization. In the first section, the players perform their parts independently of each other, making room for the small individual accelerandi and rallentandi that will naturally arise from their musicianship.
In order to reflect this approximate coordination, the section from the beginning until bar 29 is written without the bars lining up — the score until that bar should however in no way be taken as an indication of what notes are to coincide, but just an attempt to render visually the general effect. Preferably, the resulting coordination should be different every time.
From rehearsal P, a new system of notation is adopted. Here each instrument is symbolized by a number (violin 1 = 1, violin 2 = 2, viola = 3, cello = 4), with the musician responsible for cuing each bar indicated by a number at the beginning of the bar.
For example in bar 33, violin 1 starts the bar, with violin 2 entering approximately one 16th rest after violin 1, viola approximately one 16th re st after violin 2 and so on. Fermatas with “second” marks above indicate the approximate pause between bars.
From bar 74, the score returns to the notational style from the beginning of the movement.
The symbol // is used to denote bars with no fixed length.
The repeat of the opening section is ad libitum.
The last movement is a reworking of material from my choir cycle MYS OG LØRKE, setting poetry of Birgitte Krogsbøll.
The slow staggered glissandi should have a small, but noticeable difference in intonation.
Matias Vestergård
STRINGQUARTETNo.3 HJERTEBLAD
I.SPIRELAGNOCTURNE
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III.FORMULDE
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