David Dzubay
String Quartet No. 2 "Oceanic"(2018, rev. 2020)
This piece was made possible by a grant from the Fromm Music Foundation.
String Quartet No. 2 - "Oceanic" (2018, rev. 2020) by David Dzubay
I II
III
Pro Nova Music (BMI)5415 E James Rd, Bloomington, IN 47408 USA
[email protected] (812) 320-1674ProNovaMusic.com
Bergy Bits and GrowlersLost Boy Cave - Three Arch Rocks, OregonRiptide / Icebreaker
6:104:406:10
Duration: 17 minutes
Program Note:
This “oceanic” quartet was composed for the Pacifica Quartet with support from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard. While my first quartet was subtitled “Astral” after dedicatee the Orion String Quartet, my second quartet takes its aquatic focus from the Pacifica Quartet, whom I have the good fortune to work with at the Jacobs School of Music.
The music is partly inspired by memories of time at the Oregon coast in my youth, especially an annual month spent at an isolated, unnamed beach south of Cape Meares with its famous lighthouse and “Octopus tree” and north of Oceanside and the offshore Three Arch Rocks National Wildlife Refuge. This beach is one quarter of a mile long, bordered by high rocky bluffs, with a cliff in between facing the ocean; a rough road carved into the cliff face is the only means of accessing the beach except at a very low tide. The northern bluff is pierced by a Y-shaped tunnel called “Lost Boy Cave” that has openings to the beaches either side and the ocean in between. Depending on the shifting sand level and tide, it is sometimes possible to walk through to the neighboring beach, observing cave walls covered in starfish, mussels and barnacles, and tidepools with seaweed and sea anemones. Each summer for quite a few years, my family and another would rent a cabin above the cliff. While our working fathers were present mostly on weekends, the five kids and two mothers would spend a month at this unique and magical place. Playing at the edge of the great Pacific Ocean was an endless adventure: skimboarding and jumping waves in the frigid water, digging and designing elaborate games in the sand, building driftwood castles, climbing rocky faces and protrusions, exploring the windy forest atop the Northern bluff, finding agates, shells and if very lucky, Japanese glass floats in the surf, running the beach or even the log “highways” uphill from the layers of ocean, sand and surf-smoothed rockpile, and more. Everything seemed elemental, ancient, and a bit dangerous, with signs of life and death everywhere. As JFK said, “We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came.“
The Oregon coast memories served as prompt for the central movement of the quartet. Unmentioned above are the sounds at the beach, hints of which might be heard in the movement: the usual coastal sounds of water, wind and seagulls, but also the gurgling cacophony of water and sea life near and inside the cave; perhaps even sea lions barking from nearby Three Arch Rocks. Bergy Bits and Growlers are chunks of glacial ice, smaller than an iceberg, but still dangerous to ships; in the firstmovement they appear as interruptions to a rather “pacific," easy-going flow. Riptide/Icebreaker begins and ends with a doomed soul gasping for air and then swimming against relentless currents. The center of the movement imagines apowerful ship pushing through ice, bending and splitting the frozen ocean to the breaking point from within or above. Above all when at the Oregon coast, we learned to respect nature...and never turn our back on the ocean.
David Dzubay, 2018/2020
Premiere: Pacifica Quartet, University of Chicago, Mandel Hall, April 12, 2019
=84
Violin1
Violin2
Viola
Violoncello
paci c...lappingwaveswithinterruptions
5
10
15
DedicatedtothePaci caStringQuartet
StringQuartet2“Oceanic”(2019;revised2020)
©Copyright2020ProNovaMusic(BMI).Bloomington,IN.USA.Allrightsreserved.http://ProNovaMusic.com
DavidDzubay(b.1964)
I.BergyBits&Growlers
2220
25
ord. sulpont.
ord. sulpont.
pocoaccel
pocoaccel
=88
3431
ord.
37
StringQuartet2-page2
ord.
42
48
52
StringQuartet2-page3
sulpont. ord.
sulpont.ord.
sulpont.ord.
sulpont.
ord.
deeperwaters...
5856
62
67
=92
fullspeedonchoppywater....72
StringQuartet2-page4
PERU
SAL
77
82
sulpont.
sulpont.
whirlpool...
8986
ord.
cresc.pocoapoco
s.p. ord. s.p.
ord.
cresc.pocoapoco
s.p. ord. s.p. ord.
cresc.pocoapoco
s.p.ord.
s.p.ord.
s.p.
cresc.pocoapoco
ord.s.p.
ord.s.p.
90
StringQuartet2-page5
PERU
SAL
ord.s.p. ord. s.p. ord.
s.p.ord.
s.p.ord. ord.
s.p.ord.
s.p.ord. ord.
ord. s.p. ord. s.p. ord.
9593
96
=88
violentsloshing...
9998
gainingcontrol...
101
StringQuartet2-page6
PERU
SAL
on
on
on
on
105
110
114
=92 openseas,clearsailing...
118117
StringQuartet2-page7
PERU
SAL
122
128
sim.
sim.
sim.
sim.
134
ritardando
pesante
ritardando =76
pesante
pesante
pesante
139
StringQuartet2-page8
PERU
SAL
on
on
on
on
=88
churningwaters...144
148147
sub.
sub.
sub.
sub.
graduallycalming...rit.tom.169152151
sub.
( =84)
sub.
sub.
sub.
156155
StringQuartet2-page9
PERU
SAL
160159
autando 1.
autando
autando
autando
( =80)164163
2.
=72 steadytempototheend...recedingintothedistance...
169168
sulpont.
alighthouse ash
172
StringQuartet2-page10
PERU
SAL
consord.
consord.
consord.
consord.
=46 accel. =72accel. rit. =50rit.=60
Violin1
Violin2
Viola
Violoncello
sunrise...beamsoflightemergingthroughclouds...poignantmemories...
sim.
sim. warm
sim. warm
sim. warm
n.v. pocovib. n.v.
n.v. pocovib. n.v.
n.v. pocovib. n.v.
n.v. pocovib. n.v.
7
nonvib. vib.
nonvib. vib.
nonvib. vib.
rit.rit. atempo
ritenuto atempo
warm
warm
warm
(opt.harm.)warm
10
gliss.
gliss. gliss.
gliss. gliss.
gliss.
gliss.
gliss.gliss.
"seagulls"
"seagulls"
"seagulls"
"seagulls"
20
StringQuartet2-page11
II.LostBoyCave-ThreeArchRocks,Oregon(lowtide)
PERU
SAL
dampenstringswithLH;bowsideways
dampenstringswithLH;bowsideways
dampenstringswithLH;bowsideways
dampenstringswithLH;bowsideways
26
sultasto moltosulpont.glis
s. ord.
sultasto moltosulpont.gliss.
ord.
sultasto moltosulpont.gliss.
ord.
sultasto moltosulpont.gliss.
ord.
roguewave...
28
pizz.
arco
pizz.
arco
pizz. arco
pizz.
arco
piumosso =72
ritardandoritardando
=60
scamperingawayfromwave....
airnoise:lightLHtouch&slow,lightbow
airnoise:lightLHtouch&slow,lightbow
airnoise:lightLHtouch&slow,lightbow
airnoise:lightLHtouch&slow,lightbow
30
StringQuartet2-page12
PERU
SAL
n.v.
vib.
n.v. vib.
n.v. vib.
n.v.vib.
33 41
glis
s.
gliss.
gliss.
gliss.
rit.rit. atempo rit.rit. atempo contemplationatday'send...
4742
gliss. gliss. gliss.
moltoritard. atempomoltoritard. pocoritardandopocoritardandosunset,raysdisappearinghigherandhigherassunsinksathorizon...
5451
StringQuartet2-page13
PERU
SAL
senzasord. sultasto
sulpont.
sultasto pizz. ord.arco c.l.b. sultasto
sultastosenzasord.
sulpont. pizz. arco c.l.b.arcosultasto sulpont.
sulpont.senzasord.
ord.ord. s.p.
pizz.
arcoord. sulpont.
ord.
senzasord.pizz.III c.l.b.
pizz.arco
pizz.
=138
Violin1
Violin2
Viola
Violoncello
fearfully,gaspingforair...
(I)
sulpont.
sultasto pizz.
ord.arcoc.l.b.
sulpont.
ord.
sultasto pizz.
pizz. arco c.l.b. sultastoarco
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s.p.pizz.
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ord.sulpont.
c.l.b. arco
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arco
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6
ord.arco c.l.b. ord.
sultasto
c.l.b.sultastoarco
ord.ord. s.p. pizz. c.l.b.
c.l.b.pizz.
arco
12
StringQuartet2-page14
III.Riptide/Icebreaker
PERU
SAL
sulpont.
cresc.pocoapoco
sulpont.
cresc.pocoapoco
arco onsultasto
cresc.pocoapoco
pizz.
cresc.pocoapoco
swimmingagainstthecurrent,struggling...17
ord.
ord.
ord.
arco
bobbinginthewater...
2623
29
StringQuartet2-page15
PERU
SAL
sultasto
sulpont.
sultasto
sultastosulpont.
pizz.
sulpont. ord. ord. s.p.
pizz. c.l.b.pizz.
airnoise,lightLHtouch&slow,lightbowgasping...
airnoise,lightLHtouch&slow,lightbow
airnoise,lightLHtouch&slow,lightbow
airnoise,lightLHtouch&slow,lightbow
35 41
pizz. ord.arco
pizz. c.l.b. arco
sultasto
sulpont. sultasto
arcoord. c.l.b.
arcosultasto sulpont. ord.
c.l.b.
pizz.
arco c.l.b.sulpont.arco
ord.
ord. s.p.pizz.
arcoord.
arco
pizz.c.l.b.
pizz.arco c.l.b.
arco
(II,III)
43
sulpont. sultasto ord.
pizz.sulpont.
arco
ord.
ord. s.p.
c.l.b. pizz.
arco
swimming,determined,butdrifting...
5249
StringQuartet2-page16
PERU
SAL
6056
6462
6968
74
StringQuartet2-page17
PERU
SAL
sulpont.
sulpont.
sulpont.
sulpont.
=92
[q>h] "Icebreaker"
79 83
ord. ord. s.p.
ord.gliss.
ord. ord. s.p.ord.
gliss.
ord.ord. s.p.
ord.
ord.ord. s.p. ord.
pushingthroughtheice...
85
ord.
ord.
96
StringQuartet2-page18
PERU
SAL
gliss.c.l.b. arco c.l.b. arco c.l.b. arco
c.l.b. arco c.l.b. arco c.l.b. arco
gliss.
c.l.b. arco c.l.b. arco c.l.b. arco
gliss.
c.l.b. arcoc.l.b.
arcoc.l.b.
arco
breakingthrough...
105102
c.l.b. arco s.p. ord.
c.l.b. arco s.p. ord.
c.l.b. arco s.p. ord.
c.l.b. arco s.p. ord.
111
120119
133127
StringQuartet2-page19
PERU
SAL
134
144141
148
156
StringQuartet2-page20
PERU
SAL
on
on
on
on
163
sulpont.
sulpont.
onsultasto
pizz.
=138
sub.
sub.
[>q]
swimmingagaininriptide...170168
cresc.pocoapoco
s.p.
cresc.pocoapoco
s.p.
cresc.pocoapoco
s.t.
cresc.pocoapoco
173
ord.(s.p.) sultasto
sulpont.
sultasto pizz.
ord.(s.p.) sulpont. pizz. arco
ord.(s.t.) ord.ord. s.p.
pizz.arco
pizz. c.l.b.pizz. arco
gasping...
181178
StringQuartet2-page21
PERU
SAL
ord.arco
pizz. c.l.b.arco
sultastosulpont. ord.
c.l.b. sultasto sulpont. ord. c.l.b. arco
sulpont.ord.
sulpont.ord.
ord. s.p.pizz.
arco
pizz. c.l.b. pizz. arco
c.l.b. ord.arco
determinedswimming...
189184
190
196
201
StringQuartet2-page22
PERU
SAL
206
crescendo
crescendo
crescendo
crescendo
215211
221216
222
StringQuartet2-page23
PERU
SAL
Play3times228227
Play3times(octaves!)232
(octaves!)
241238
dim.pocoapoco
dim.pocoapoco
dim.pocoapoco
dim.pocoapoco
sinking....bubblesrisingtosurface...245
StringQuartet2-page24
PERU
SAL
s.p. ord. s.p.ord.
s.p. ord. s.p. ord.
s.p. ord. s.p.ord.
s.p. ord. s.p.ord.
gliss.twitch-still...
gliss.
gliss.
gliss.
256250
s.p. ord. s.p. ord.
dim.pocoapocoalniente
s.p. ord. s.p. ord.
dim.pocoapocoalniente
s.p. ord. s.p. ord.
dim.pocoapocoalniente
s.p. ord. s.p. ord.
dim.pocoapocoalniente
ritardandopocoapocoritardandopocoapoco morendomorendo
259
StringQuartet2-page25
PERU
SAL
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Dzubay - String Quartet 2