Nazi Oppression, Religious Music and Yoga Positions Inspire Soundwaves Festival Finale
Soundwaves Festival 2008 reaches a dramatic finale, with a concert by The Duke Quartet on Sunday 29th June.
The string quartet have been together for 15 years, and have worked with artists including Morrissey, the Pretenders, Joby Talbot, Michael Nyman, Blur and the dance company Rosas. Their Soundwaves Festival concert includes four pieces.
Philip Venables’ String Quartet is a Duke Quartet favourite. Venables has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, and Rambert Dance Company.
Béla Bartok’s String Quartet No.6 was written in 1939, during the Nazi regime and a year before he emigrated to America. At the same time his mother was dying. All this is reflected in a deeply personal work.
Fratres is a piece that exists in many instrumental variations, from string orchestra with percussion to string quartet, and is one of Arvo Pärt’s best known works. The work has a meditative atmosphere and uses Part’s compositional style which he calls 'tintinnabuli' (from Latin bells), which was inspired by chant music and his spiritual experiences.
And composer Rolf Hind has been commissioned by Soundwaves Festival to write the final piece. The yoga position Shashankasana (or Rabbit) has inspired his composition. It is a relaxation position, where much focus is placed on the breathing.
"In one yoga class I went to, the teacher suggested a ratio for breathing and I found myself listening to the various heavy and light breathers in the class around me, all trying to keep to this rhythm," says Hind, "and eventually this became the impetus for Shashankasana. If you listen to almost any phrase or section of this piece, this breathing ratio provides the rhythm until gradually it slows down."
The Duke Quartet appear at The Pavilion Theatre, Brighton on Sunday 29th June, in a concert supported by the Friends of Soundwaves Festival.
A free guide to the Soundwaves Festival is available from venues across Brighton and Hove, and from Revolutionary Music in Worthing.
More:
The string quartet have been together for 15 years, and have worked with artists including Morrissey, the Pretenders, Joby Talbot, Michael Nyman, Blur and the dance company Rosas. Their Soundwaves Festival concert includes four pieces.
Philip Venables’ String Quartet is a Duke Quartet favourite. Venables has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, and Rambert Dance Company.
Béla Bartok’s String Quartet No.6 was written in 1939, during the Nazi regime and a year before he emigrated to America. At the same time his mother was dying. All this is reflected in a deeply personal work.
Fratres is a piece that exists in many instrumental variations, from string orchestra with percussion to string quartet, and is one of Arvo Pärt’s best known works. The work has a meditative atmosphere and uses Part’s compositional style which he calls 'tintinnabuli' (from Latin bells), which was inspired by chant music and his spiritual experiences.
And composer Rolf Hind has been commissioned by Soundwaves Festival to write the final piece. The yoga position Shashankasana (or Rabbit) has inspired his composition. It is a relaxation position, where much focus is placed on the breathing.
"In one yoga class I went to, the teacher suggested a ratio for breathing and I found myself listening to the various heavy and light breathers in the class around me, all trying to keep to this rhythm," says Hind, "and eventually this became the impetus for Shashankasana. If you listen to almost any phrase or section of this piece, this breathing ratio provides the rhythm until gradually it slows down."
The Duke Quartet appear at The Pavilion Theatre, Brighton on Sunday 29th June, in a concert supported by the Friends of Soundwaves Festival.
A free guide to the Soundwaves Festival is available from venues across Brighton and Hove, and from Revolutionary Music in Worthing.
More:
- Soundwaves Festival Website
- Brighton Dome Ticket Office - 01273 709709