Idling

Keaton Garrett

ensemble string quartet
duration 6 minutes
written summer 2016
 

Program Note:

The music begins very simply with a basic idea that is repeated a multitude of times until outside pressure from the other instruments forces it to slowly change. Although modification happens, the music always contains elements of the basic ideas presented from the onset of the piece. After every section where the basic idea has been molded into something new, there follows a free-flowing section of contemplation, each successive occurrence of which becomes more and more obscure. The piece attempts to capture a sense of daydreaming through the constant transition between sections. Idling concludes after the last conteplative section, in which the music re-grounds itself and returns to a skewed, paniced version of the basic idea from the beginning, leaving the listener to question whether processes of forced change were beneficial or not to the piece overall.