Commissioned by

The Argosy Foundation and the Cypress String Quartet

Performances

FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2007
SAN JOSE, CA
Cypress String Quartet
FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
WORLD PREMIERE
Cypress String Quartet

Reviews

PAUL HERTELENDY, ARTSSF.COM, THE INDEPENDENT OBSERVER OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA MUSIC AND DANCE, WEEK OF MAY 19-26, 2007, VOL. 9, NO. 95
SAN JOSE — One of the most stimulating and consistently inventive new string quartets we’ve heard in years has been launched by Daniel Asia, 53, of the University of Arizona faculty. It’s the seven-movement Quartet No. 3, which had its world premiere in San Francisco in March, and heard again here (with a few revisions) via the Cypress String Quartet’s concert May 18.

Asia’s music highlights an engaging needle-spray of sound, influenced both by traditional American forms and the livelier side of the Second Vienna School. Particularly striking are the irregular little stops in the music, never settling into a predictable routine. Rhythms, however irregular, are the driving force.

The jocular opening movement blazes with originality, offering jazz-like syncopation. Two of the lyrical interludes are so epigrammatic, you could see this 26-minute opus as essentially a five-movement concept. The whimsy of the third movement is hard to define on first hearing, rich in ideas and directions, quirky-volatile in its outbursts, while the fifth suggests some lullaby, with solos on violin and cello. The sixth movement is the crux, combining ideas from Nos. 2 and 4, while spinning out a palindromic format. The fast-flying finale recalls the opening of Webern’s “Five Pieces for String Quartet,” Op. 5 — bold, witty, fun-loving. And the piece goes full circle, ending as it started on the note E. Like any opus so rich in ideas, it fairly cries out for repeat hearings in order to be properly assimilated.

RICHARD SCHEININ, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 5/22/2007
‘Seer’ quartet merits second hearing

Every year, the Cypress String Quartet performs new music it has commissioned from a living composer. And every year, I listen and say to myself, “Why can’t they play that twice?”

I mention this because Cypress’ annual “Call and Response” concert has just passed, and I’ve been reflecting on the new sounds the quartet is bringing into the world. This time, the music is by Daniel Asia, whose String Quartet No.3 employs a private shadow language, which he says is inspired by the rhythms of jazz and popular music. But the relationship is oblique, embedded, waiting to reveal itself, through time.

Played by Cypress, the music put out a personal call. It was conversational – speech-like, sometimes argumentative and generally dark, even when it announced itself as whimsical. The music is highly introverted; Asia has taken those outside influences and brought them to a private, internal place. The Beatles? Not really. Davis? Maybe, because of Asia’s dark spirit.

The opening movement of Asia’s piece was very much like that. I imagined, as the four instruments talked in changing combinations, two couples schmoozing at the dinner table, relaxed, riffing on ideas, arguing and popping with excitement. The second movement was more clearly melodic and haunting. The third, titled “Whimsical,” drooped and melted. The fourth brought to mind a disjointed hoedown. The fifth, a soulful adagio, was a dark potent hymn, long-lined and ruminative.

And so it went through seven movements, with moments of occasional innocence (the Beatles, finally?), motoric rhythms (rock ‘n’ roll or jazz, obliquely?) and playful conjuring of colors and textures, new sounds for a string quartet. Asia is an experimenter (Davis?), a careful thinker who also takes risks.

Let’s hear it again.