Distant Voices

In my sixth work for a string quartet, there is a very simple melody concealed in the background. That melody (distant voices) is played within an extremely slow tempo, and the notes which form the melody gain different textures by becoming disassembled, and played by different techniques.

In our daily lives, our inner voices become concealed by our daily customs. The act of composing, to me, is to find out that concealed distant voices, make those voices spatialized and construct them within the musical time. This work is dedicated to Alois Lageder. Toshio Hosokawa