Tribute, for Strings

String ensemble, 7'

I composed Tribute the day before my Approaches to Music (similar to Musicology) exam. I have been listening to Pärt's Für Lennart in Memoriam and Silouan's Song (both written for an ensemble of strings) and that is reflected in my own piece. As the title says, it's a tribute to two composers I admire a lot: Arvo Pärt and Henryk Gorécki.

Gathering musicians to play is always rather troublesome, especially gathering a group of more than three musicians. That was what I felt three weeks ago when I called up and texted so many people to gather nine musicians to play and record Tribute. However, I managed to finally gather more instruments than I originally planning for, which is always great.

The rehearsal session went quite well, despite being the first time I conducted a rehearsal. The piece was easy enough too for them to sight read. After an hour short of rehearsal, we were already ready to record the piece. Jacob came in and set up the mics and we were set to record.

Violins: Zhen Zhang, Michael Lee, Tom Helps

Violas: Thomas Giam, Reinhard Voß, Anthony Chataway

Cellos: Cassie, Louisa Giacomini

Double Bass: Julia Norman

Recorded by Jacob Simionato, Wholesale Butchery on the 2nd July.