Jody Rockmaker

String Quartet

Child's Play for string quartet was completed in January 2006, after a year and a half of work. The piece may well be subtitled, "The Disney in my life," since the underlying programs of each of the three movements involve my daughter's interactions with some Disney product.

The first movement, Why Can't the Sky be Pink? depicts the frustration that Rebecca, age 3, felt while playing a Winnie the Pooh computer game. She was told to help Piglet finish his paintings by matching colors, seen in a small sketch, to the larger canvas. My daughter disagreed with Piglet's choice of background color. The music describes the irritation and ensuing tantrum after each mouse click was followed by Pooh-bear's soothing comment, "I think there might be a better choice."

Rebecca Sings Like a Ballerina was a comment overheard after seeing the stage production of The Lion King. Rebecca and her best friend Matt were very excited by the spectacle and imagined how wonderful it would be to perform in front of such a great audience, Matt on violin and Rebecca singing and dancing.

The title of the last movement is simply a corruption of that now classic movie, Country Bears. I guess Crunchy Bears make more sense to a two-and-a-half year old. The name has stuck ever since.