SNAPDRAGONS

for string quartet | 8-9’ | 2024

written for Dior Quartet & mostly modern festival

Instrumentation - Violin I | Violin II | Viola | Cello

Premiered at Mostly Modern Festival on June 20th, 2024 by the Dior Quartet (Noa Sarid [vln I], Tobias Elser [vln II], Caleb Georges [vla], Joanne Yesol Choi [vc])

Repremiered at The Juilliard School on October 21st, 2024 by Ezra Shcolnik [vln I], Anthony Poon [vln II], Aliza Creel [vla], Isabelle Nichols [vc]

difficulty

Advanced

MOVEMENTS

I. Red - II. Green - III. Yellow - IV. Blue - V. White

Program Note

A rubber band ball has been sitting on my desk, staring at my every keystroke for the past two years. I quite enjoy the philosophies one could create around a rubber band ball - each rubber band, another layer of color - adding density and shape, creating elasticity and resilience under tension. Something that snaps back to reality; something that is more than its parts (though semantics could suggest otherwise…). This however begs the question(s): what are those parts? What does one layer add to the shape and color of the rubber band ball, and what does one take away? In light of these ideas, how can I then create an emotional experience and story through this seemingly mundane desk-top accessory?

There’s an interesting correlation between this and a self-drawn analogy of a snapdragon flower, and dragons themselves in this already completed work. The snapdragon flower, under pressure at its base, “snaps” its dragon-like mouth shut; similarly to how we may shut ourselves out from others under undue stress or tension, or how a rubber band snaps to its original form. The dragon also symbolizes, in some Western traditions, a sense of transformation, and overcoming oneself. As well, the colors of the outer and central movements of the work reflect those of snapdragons - red, yellow, and white.

This work is an expression of those themes, a reflection of the human condition (I didn’t quite realize how much so until the discovery of its new title). Finding oneself through the grey, maintaining resilience under stress, the amalgam of color and shape that forms an experience. The rubber band ball of life, so to speak.