- Thrum (2002) 4 guitars 17'
- Commissioned by the Jerome Foundation for the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet.
- Premiere—2002, by the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, Minneapolis, MN.
Program Note
Poet Donald Hall writes of finding a box of scraps in the attic with the label “string too short to be saved.” The title of this work plays with the thrumming sound a guitar inevitably makes, but also with the notion of string as a bit of thrum. I had in mind the process of weaving bits together to make a sturdy but colorful fabric.
I am not a guitarist. But in my exploration of the instrument over several solo and chamber works I found that comfortable hand positions lead to sweet harmonies. Thrum reflects that relaxed harmonic language. A quartet of guitars has a unified sound, like a big, 24-string instrument. But I was equally interested in creating a concertante work, with opportunities for individual display, and the repartee of opposing groups.
After a brief and lyrical introduction, a perky theme proposes a buoyant concerto movement, with figurative episodes in between statements. In time, there is a second, more lyrical theme, later the principal theme in longer notes, and finally the two themes together.
The slow movement is part philosophy lesson, part stroll to a garden of little bells, where the first notes of the work are recalled, as if in memory. The recessional is leisurely. On the way out of the garden, a developing motive suggests a subject for the final movement's fugue. A vigorous coda reconciles the guitar's melodic and chordal natures.
Thrum was commissioned by The Jerome Foundation for the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, and was premiered by that ensemble in April, 2002 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The performers were Alan Johnston, Joseph Hagedorn, O. Nicholas Raths and David Crittenden.