Anger Management

Description

Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola 1, Viola 2, Violoncello 1, Violoncello 2, Double Bass — Anger Management is a study in aggression and heartbreak. Itsinspiration comes from a particularly nasty breakup and Tennyson’smaxim, “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved atall.” The piece considers and ultimately rejects this notion.My goal was to combine the narrative of romantic loss - with itselements of anger, nostalgia, despair and ultimately defiance - with astrict compositional technique and economy of material. The pieceis based on two motives: the gruff, ascending three notes of the firstbar and a descending half-step sigh, which is eventually transformedand intensified into a glissando ascending major-7th.