A Single Sound of Strings, the latest part of John Woolrich’s ongoing string quartet cycle A Book of Inventions, premiered with the Sacconi Quartet on 17 May, as part of the Folkestone-based Sacconi Chamber Music Festival at St Eanswythe's Church.
The 10-minute piece is cast in one movement. Both poetic and restless in nature, “it is an exercise in close listening for the performer and the audience”, writes Megan Steller in the programme note. Opening as if in the middle of a conversation, its effect is akin to suddenly eavesdropping on a group of strangers, who are by turns argumentative, conciliatory, and often heterogenous. This dynamic conversation is reflected in the work’s contrapuntal writing, which stretches the discussion to breaking point, whilst at other points appearing to yearn for some kind of ultimate convergence.
The quartets of A Book of Inventions, now numbering over two dozen and spread across five volumes, have been premiered and programmed by a host of ensembles, including the Ruisi, Bozzini, Benyounes, Barber, Ligeti, and Brodsky quartets. The Sacconis previously premiered The Path is Winding at the Little Missenden Festival in 2019 and A Box of Shards in Folkestone in 2021.
The Benyounes, Sacconi, and Salomé quartets have filmed several of their performances of different movements from A Book of Inventions. These include A still tragic dance, recorded at Chatham Dockyards, and Villanesca, captured at St Eanswythe's Church in Folkestone. On 23 May Tim Hopkins’ film of four contemporary string quartets – including Woolrich’s Kleine Wanderung – was screened at the Lewes Depot in Sussex. Available to watch on the NMC website, the 11-minute quartet “is a short shaggy dog story”, says Woolrich. The slippery musical narrative was inspired by the digressive literary meanderings of Robert Walser, Laurence Sterne, and Italo Calvino.
On 14 May the Festival also saw performances of works chamber works by Thomas Adès, Tansy Davies, Colin Matthews, and Woolrich, at The Grand, Folkestone, curated by the composer and the quartet. The programme included Adès’ Berceuse from The Exterminating Angel (performed by Joseph Havlat), Davies proem (for solo cello) two movements from Matthews’ Suite for Piano and Woolrich’s In the Mirrors of Asleep. The 8-minute work for chamber ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano is inspired by a line from Anne Stevenson’s poetry – Woolrich calls the piece “broken music of whispers, ticking clocks, brooding chords and silences”.