Our Options Have Changed [2022]
For the Argus Quartet: Clara Kim & Giancarlo Latta, violins; Maren Rothfritz, viola; Mariel Roberts, cello
Filmed in New York City, June 2022
Video editing by Louis Ng
For the Argus Quartet: Clara Kim & Giancarlo Latta, violins; Maren Rothfritz, viola; Mariel Roberts, cello
Filmed in New York City, June 2022
Video editing by Louis Ng
Our Options Have Changed might be considered as the second entry (along with Thank You for Waiting) in an unofficial series of pieces borrowing their titles from outgoing corporate/office telephone menu phrases that strike me as oddly poetic. In this case, the sentence almost feels like "glass half full/half empty" proverbial expression: old possibilities, whether personal or societal, are no longer available, replaced by new realities and choices - combining, perhaps, regret, relief, hope, and anxiety in equal measure.
These mixed emotions were definitely with me going through and out of the pandemic. As friends' performance opportunities abruptly vanished, and then slowly, haltingly reappeared, I thought constantly about spaces - recital spaces we couldn't get into, distant spaces we imagined traveling to, mundane yet reverberant spaces in which we might never encounter a concert but would be pleasantly surprised if we did.
Still in this mindset, my early conversations with Clara and Maren about a piece for the Argus Quartet moved quickly from plans for a straightforward multi-movement work to ideas about a kind of "video portrait" of the group: we discussed the quartet performing together first in intimate, almost claustrophobic rooms and hallways and gradually overlapping with themselves playing in increasingly more open and resonant environments. We hoped to capture sounds that were unique to these four individuals in these particular times and locations. The quartet gamely brainstormed, and then, in the summer of 2022 in Manhattan and Brooklyn, visited and filmed themselves in a bathroom, a stairwell, an underpass, and a subway station.
I feel completely spoiled and endlessly grateful to have been able to work with such a patient, eager, and adventurous set of musicians who were able to capture exactly what I had hoped for and envisioned with this project - and special thanks as well to Louis Ng for putting it all together in a viewable package.
These mixed emotions were definitely with me going through and out of the pandemic. As friends' performance opportunities abruptly vanished, and then slowly, haltingly reappeared, I thought constantly about spaces - recital spaces we couldn't get into, distant spaces we imagined traveling to, mundane yet reverberant spaces in which we might never encounter a concert but would be pleasantly surprised if we did.
Still in this mindset, my early conversations with Clara and Maren about a piece for the Argus Quartet moved quickly from plans for a straightforward multi-movement work to ideas about a kind of "video portrait" of the group: we discussed the quartet performing together first in intimate, almost claustrophobic rooms and hallways and gradually overlapping with themselves playing in increasingly more open and resonant environments. We hoped to capture sounds that were unique to these four individuals in these particular times and locations. The quartet gamely brainstormed, and then, in the summer of 2022 in Manhattan and Brooklyn, visited and filmed themselves in a bathroom, a stairwell, an underpass, and a subway station.
I feel completely spoiled and endlessly grateful to have been able to work with such a patient, eager, and adventurous set of musicians who were able to capture exactly what I had hoped for and envisioned with this project - and special thanks as well to Louis Ng for putting it all together in a viewable package.