´óÏó´«Ã½

Matthew Kaner is Radio 3’s Embedded Composer in 3, in partnership with Sound and Music. Listen to the seventh of Matthew's weekly commissions for 70 at 70, a series of musical and cultural commissions to mark 70 years of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3.

Matthew writes:

'This week’s inspiration is the Swiss composer Jurg Frey, who is a member of the international collective known as the Wandelweiser group. (It’s also a record label that puts out most their work.) All of the composers in the collective (Michael Pisaro is perhaps the best known) share a deep appreciation for the work and ideas of John Cage, and broadly speaking their work is characterised by the use of mesmerising stillness; so much so that it is sometimes referred to as ‘silent music’.

Musicians: Van Kuijk Quartet

I came across Frey’s work in particular a couple of years ago and have been transfixed by the beauty of its delicate and clear textures ever since, especially in works such as his Extended Circular Music.

So with this short movement for string quartet I wanted to capture something of the pared-down transparency and spaciousness of his music, by making full use of the ensemble’s ability for incredibly sustained textures, but with my own distinct harmonic language. Unlike most of my other music, there’s very little in the way of melody and the textures are very simple; there’s also quite a lot of silence. However, one more personal touch is that there are occasional short repeated figures in the violin, that seemed to suggest themselves as sort of echoes of the long held chords, or perhaps of natural sounds heard in a night time landscape.'

Show less