A Twentieth Sense for Strings
A Twentieth Sense for Strings provides a fresh, yet nostalgic take on twentieth century popular music styles for the string ensemble. Employing the jovial and racing rag, swing music with flavors of New Orleans blues, and finally the upbeat and heartfelt inspiration from the Great White Way, this set of three movements is a crowd-pleaser—but your audience won’t be the only ones humming the tune afterward!
Performed by
Rebekah Willard, Violin
Lydia Moore, Violin
Joanna Davenport, Viola
Libby Criswell, Cello
About the Work
It was at the turn of the twentieth century that American musical styles were more clearly defined by its people, spawned by those who came to America by choice or by force. For this set of pieces, I selected the traditional instrumentation for string quartet because most of these music styles began with the use of stringed instruments, such as fiddle and banjo, or the human voice. The quartet provides both the flexibility and range of expressivity required to adequately portray these influences from popular American music from the twentieth century.
-Blake