Program Note
There is a moment in which one wonders if everything he has learned is false; that one should stare directly into the sun. It’s a short moment. Eos is neither programmatic nor narrative in form. However, the initial image of the peaceful sunrise followed by the fantastic, ecstatic, and terrifying act of staring into the sun may provide some useful imagery for the visual listener. In Eos, I employed harmonies I considered consonant (e.g., the final chord), which by tradition would be called dissonant. A recent fascination with interference (a.k.a combination tones or heterodynes) caused me to reconsider the question of consonance, and by extension an artist’s complex relationship to beauty. With the analogy of the life-giving, creative energy of the sun, and the desire to stare into it, I began to wonder: Is beauty universal? Is the artist’s goal to reproduce/capture beauty? Do we listen to music in order to hear what we consider beautiful? These are questions not answered, but asked in this music.
Purchasing Info
Click below to purchase with credit or a PayPal account or email benhjertmann[[at]]gmail[[dot com]] to request an invoice and/or pay with check or money order. Once payment is received the music will be shipped FREE OF CHARGE (for bound scores) or emailed (for pdf scores) within two weeks. Please direct any questions or concerns to bhjertmann{at}gmail{dot}com.
Eos for string quartet
October 23, 2011Program Note
There is a moment in which one wonders if everything he has learned is false; that one should stare directly into the sun. It’s a short moment. Eos is neither programmatic nor narrative in form. However, the initial image of the peaceful sunrise followed by the fantastic, ecstatic, and terrifying act of staring into the sun may provide some useful imagery for the visual listener. In Eos, I employed harmonies I considered consonant (e.g., the final chord), which by tradition would be called dissonant. A recent fascination with interference (a.k.a combination tones or heterodynes) caused me to reconsider the question of consonance, and by extension an artist’s complex relationship to beauty. With the analogy of the life-giving, creative energy of the sun, and the desire to stare into it, I began to wonder: Is beauty universal? Is the artist’s goal to reproduce/capture beauty? Do we listen to music in order to hear what we consider beautiful? These are questions not answered, but asked in this music.
Purchasing Info
Click below to purchase with credit or a PayPal account or email benhjertmann[[at]]gmail[[dot com]] to request an invoice and/or pay with check or money order. Once payment is received the music will be shipped FREE OF CHARGE (for bound scores) or emailed (for pdf scores) within two weeks. Please direct any questions or concerns to bhjertmann{at}gmail{dot}com.