Reddit mentions of Modus Novus

Thank you!

This is more or less the first classical piece I ever wrote and had performed by real musicians. It was originally intended as a string quartet (no guitar), and it's sort of like a "coming of age piece" - I added the guitar because it's "my instrument" (I studied jazz guitar quite at length for the last three or four years).

I took two central themes or motivic cells - one is DSCH (D Eb C B), Shostakovich's name transcribed enharmonically and the other is just a series of descending intervals - G, D, C#, F#. I chose the first one because Shostakovich's String Quartet's really inspired me (i.e. made me want to write something like that). The second one I got from the Swedish atonal sight-singing textbook Modus Novus, and I really like the sound of it as well as the melodic and harmonic possibilities that it offers (a minor second, a minor ninth, various fifths and fourths).

The three movements were basically trying to take these through all the different "styles" or idioms that I like, while still keeping it one piece, so the first is a sort of post tonal style with some rhythmic semi-complexities (the second theme being a nod to the opening of Shostakoivch's seventh quartet), ending with a ground bass in the soprano (1st violin and guitar) while the other three instruments alternate between a kind of jig going up by quarter tones and an interrupted tremolo.

The second movement was meant to be more "spacy", less rhythmical, quiet, ambient, quarter-tone, exploring some guitar techniques that I've used quite a lot in "free" playing, but putting it in the context of the string quartet, while also bringing the two elements together.

The third movement, finally, is supposed to be the most tonal and lyrical, while still using the two motivic cells. The guitar first appears in a very classical, traditional role, but is the either paired or contrasted with the cello, and ending with a lyrical line in octaves with the violin. The last few notes is the DSCH theme, untransposed, but the last note (B) is taken as Cb in an Ab minor chord, played only by the guitar; this is the first time this note is played in the context of this chord, and I wanted the ending to just be at a completely different place, which is why the other strings stop right before that chord in the guitar as well.

All in all, the things that I mentioned (thematic continuity through different styles in different movement) wasn't really as marked as I wanted it to be; it all came out as pretty similar modernist wailing. But I'm glad you liked it, thanks for listening! :)