for string quartet (2 violins, viola, cello)
commissioned by the Phoenix Art Museum
for the Herberger Quartet
cover by Lindsay Bird Courtney
Through a wonderful collaboration between the ASU composition department, string area, and the Phoenix Art Museum, I was given a wonderful opportunity to write my second string quartet based on a work of my choosing on display in the museum. After a private tour of museum, I had fixated on a large painting hanging in the contemporary art wing called Pisa II by Al Held.
The painting is pretty large, and depicts an interpretation of the Tower of Pisa stripped down to its guts. The characteristic spiral in the painting formed the basis for the work, which then had the beams and colors worked over the top of it. As a whole, this string quartet is a short work that quite literally is working to depict Held's illustration.