Score and parts in preparation

I.                   Співи (Spivy)

II.                  Cantos I (after Hyperlude V)

III.                Quejío

IV.                Cantos II

Song is the driving force behind Francisco Coll’s first string quartet – melodies and ways of singing that are remembered, encoded and rendered new.

The first and third movements are underpinned by folk music. The very opening of the quartet was inspired by a rough but vivid recording from Ukraine that Coll encountered online but which now has disappeared without a trace. Later in the movement, vestiges of a Ukranian tango are transformed into a wild pasadoble.

Taking its title from the pained cries that punctuate flamenco, the third movement is rooted in the sounds and manner of the cante jondo tradition.

The two Cantos movements do not share musical material but are instead linked by a certain mystical character. The first, written in 2017 as a standalone work for the Cuarteto Casals and itself based on one of Coll’s Hyperludes for violin, is both introspective and erotic. Each phrase arches and unfolds within a breath, and emulates the inflections of a human voice.

Cantos II begins with an ending and ends with something of a beginning. The concluding chord of Anton Webern’s Five Movements for String Quartet is used as the point of departure; out of this extraordinary harmony the music becomes very expressive, with hocketting melodies and arabesques emerging from within a chorale. Having begun his quartet in contemporary Ukraine, Coll ends it with the oldest-known piece of notated music: the Hurrian cult hymn. Originating from 12^th-century BCE Ugarit in Syria, this haunting remnant – also known as the Hymn to Nikkal – provides an apt conclusion to these “Códices”. 

Faber Music