american chestnut: postlude for string quartet (Attacca Quartet) Isaac Santos

Premiered by the Attacca string quartet. In my first conceptualization of this work, my goal was purely musical: to begin with the sparsest material from which a vast cacophony of relationships develops. Upon further discussion with mentors and the like, this concept eventually morphed into a sort-of 'transformed repetition. The first two sections of the work use a broad, identical harmonic skeleton; form on a 'macro' scale. The final section of the piece compresses this skeleton into smaller sections of a sequence; form on a 'micro' scale. Eventually, the work goes through a textural decay-- disappearing into silence. I was inspired by the life of the American chestnut tree. Unfortunately, in the late 19th and early 20th century the trees were driven to near extinction caused by a blight from trees imported from the Asian continent; however, the pathogen was unable to attack the roots due to other microorganisms in the soil. Therefore, the trees will grow to a size of a bush, before being devoured by the pathogen-- forever condemned to a constant cycle of death and rebirth. I wrote a shorter work for piano titled american chestnut: prelude during the process of writing this piece to further explore the idea of 'death and rebirth' in the context of musical material. Hence the title, american chestnut: postlude. While the concept is far from new, it has provided a new way for me to personally explore what I feel is one of, if not, the most important parameter in music: form.