string quartet (alone or + inst or voc)

The "Chaconne" is a stand-alone work for string quartet excerpted from the third movement of String Quartet No. 6.

Combining elements of chaconne, passacaglia and theme-and-variations, the piece takes the Welsh tune “All Through the Night” through a dizzying and dazzling journey from twilight to twilight.

The most recent commission by the Martinů String Quartet to date, McKinley’s String Quartet No. 6 continues the exploration of overall form, similar to that of the previous quartet. The piece is played continuously, like String Quartet No. 5, although McKinley now turns his attention to the manipulation of form for each of the four distinct movements. This latest quartet outweighs the previous two quartets not only in length, but also in compositional stature and formal innovation. Jazz rhythms have less presence than the previous quartets, although several sonorities and harmonic progressions hint at the influence of jazz, which underpins so many of McKinley’s compositions.

In his String Quartet No. 4, McKinley achieves a synthesis between a high-modernist aesthetic and jazz influenced rhythms and harmonies. The viola’s subtle beginning of the quartet centers the listener on the pitch G. After the cello quietly introduces a G-Major pentatonic collection, the violins introduce the melody in double octaves.

The melody isn’t exclusively pentatonic, although it remains centered around the initial 5 pitches introduced by the cello. The doubled melody begins with an upward gesture, which permeates the remainder of the movement. The slow and steady cello and viola pairing establish a solid foundation, enabling the violins to soar over top. The violin pairing eventually breaks down, with only one violin playing on the initial melodic gesture. A sudden tutti interruption of blocked chords breaks the opening sentiments of the movement.

My second string quartet, “Fear of Death/Love of Life”, is a work I have been planning for many years, in part out of a sense of personal necessity that is both rooted in my musical practice and outside of it. The piece is about confronting, and hopefully transcending fear, as its subtitle implies. The original concept for the work was as a diptych, which now in fact constitutes its outer movements. The piece moves from a world of collapsing, anguished harmonies toward a joyously free romp, with a simultaneous transformation of its language from highly dissonant to more consonant. It became possible for me to write the work only when I had conceived of the second movement as a bridge, a sort of nocturnal hymn that grows increasingly ecstatic over its course. Its primary theme is derived from a tune I first discovered on the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute). While the music is designed to follow a progression from darkness to light that has more general overtones, it is also a portrait of a very difficult and soul-wrenching period of my recent life. The work was completed in summer 2001 at Yaddo, which is thanked for providing such an ideal environment for creative work.