Program Notes

The Subject gains access to bliss by the
cohabitation of languages working side by side:
the text of pleasure is a sanctioned Babel

— Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text (1973)

Corde Vocale, my first string quartet, took shape over the course of a month in late 2005. The essence of this piece lies in the exploration of multilingual systems. Having left my native Brazil many years ago and experienced life in diverse cities and countries, thoughts and ideas flow to me in various languages, often retaining their essence in their original idioms without the need for translation into my "mother-tongue" - Portuguese - to convey their full meaning. A similar process unfolds in this work, where language becomes a metaphor for style, specifically certain techniques associated with each language.

Three musical devices take center stage, each offering its unique perspective - mobile elements (intervallic permutations of musical structures), spectral components (spectrogram analysis of each string in the cello suggesting overtone models for key harmonies and modulations), and concrète or fixed sound objects. The intention was not to create eclectic juxtapositions or stylistic clashes, but rather to navigate the distinct characteristics of each style and unite them into a cohesive whole, blending radically different musical syntaxes. This exploration acts as an "open-sesame" of Babel, unveiling connections that would otherwise be deemed impossible and giving rise to intriguing new compositional challenges.

The oft-debated issues in contemporary music concerning the lack of a universal lingua franca are, in my view, no longer pertinent. Asymmetrical networks shaped by the incompatibilities of multiple languages create fruitful perforations in the musical discourse.

— Felipe Lara