"S Is" for String Quartet - Ben Rieke

"S Is" for string quartet is a series of small pieces for string quartet that start with S's, all based on gestural ideas suggested by their titles.
In "Switch", pizzicato gestures toggle adjacent players between two different states of playing, fast and clean or slow and ugly. As the movement progresses, players fight more and more for control of the ensemble (with disastrous consequences by the end).
"Subvert" attempts to set up audience expectations based around a violin glissando gesture and then subverts] them.
"Smash/Stretch" alternates between two types of material, one slow and another fast & rhythmically driven. Over the course of the piece the slow material is compressed in pitch and sped up, eventually becoming smashed into a single point. This occurs in alternation with elongations of the fast material which becomes softer and colder as it expands, like the behavior of gas particles bouncing around under increasingly lower pressure.
"Spin" presents a fast canon where material is quickly passed around verbatim in a circle between members of the ensemble. The passed material then grows to accommodate other parameters besides pitch (dynamics, timbre, etc) before the rate of spinning itself is manipulated.
Connected to the gestural language of the piece and the often programmatic pace at which it unfolds, theatrics and humor pervade each of the four "S's" in "S Is". They should wear their hearts on their sleeves, hopefully funny and interesting in equal measure.
Violin 1 - William Mayhew
Violin 2 - Kylie Dickinson
Viola - Charles Kanne
Cello - Chris Santos
Recorded in October 2020 at the Jacobs School of Music