Catherine Lamb: String Quartets JACK Quartet

• Catherine Lamb (b. 1982): String quartet (Two blooms):
• 1 Lamb: String quartet (Two blooms) [2009] 46:44
• Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet:
• 2 Lamb: Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet: I 06:57
• 3 Lamb: Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet: II 03:53
• 4 Lamb: Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet: III 03:36
• 5 Lamb: Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet: IV 08:06
• 6 Lamb: Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet: V 07:21
• 7 Lamb: Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet: VI 07:27
• 8 Lamb: Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet: VII 07:27
• 9 Lamb: Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet: VIII 09:19
• 10 Lamb: Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet: IX 08:16
• 11 Lamb: Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet: X 14:21
• 12 Lamb: Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet: XI 12:22
• 13 Lamb: Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet: XII 03:45
• 14 Lamb: Divisio spiralis (2019) for string Quartet: XIII 06:10
• Total Runtime 02:25:44

Info for Catherine Lamb: String Quartets

JACK Quartet’s collaboration with Catherine Lamb has become a central artistic relationship, pushing forward the creative work of both the composer and quartet. Lamb’s music represents a facet of the very cutting edge of string instrument writing today. JACK has spent its existence expanding their abilities as chamber musicians and taking part in the conversation about enriching the language of possibilities in string quartet music. That the challenge in Lamb’s music comes through the lens of harmony and not through extended techniques or outre rhythmic demands, but rather a yogic attention to the sustained sound of the strings resonating traditionally, makes it all the more fascinating.

divisio spiralis requires JACK to retune their instruments to create new patterns of resonance as they slowly descend for over an hour, journeying through harmonic landscapes that can be crystalline and fuzzy, throbbing and placid, using microtonal tunings based on the overtone series of a 10 Hz fundamental. As Lamb describes the work, “the first time I discovered Erv Wilson’s 1965 organization of the overtone series as a logarithmic spiral, the image immediately resonated with me as a lucid means to describe harmonic space as numbers in repetition and interaction, generating/blooming outwards with each new prime and composite. I absorbed this image while working on the piece for JACK, and after applying a 29-limit reductionist omission to the tonal palette and situating the four string instruments inside it as distinct resonating chambers, I utilized this image as an inspiration for the total piece.”

JACK Quartet:
Christopher Otto, violin
Austin Wulliman, violin
John Pickford Richards, viola
Jay Campbell, cello

JACK Quartet
Deemed "superheroes of the new music world" (Boston Globe), the JACK Quartet is "the go-to quartet for contemporary music, tying impeccable musicianship to intellectual ferocity and a take-no-prisoners sense of commitment." (Washington Post) "They are a musical vehicle of choice to the next great composers who walk among us." (Toronto Star)

The recipient of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, New Music USA's Trailblazer Award, and the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, JACK has performed to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall (USA), Lincoln Center (USA), Miller Theatre (USA), Wigmore Hall (United Kingdom), Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (Netherlands), IRCAM (France), Kölner Philharmonie (Germany), the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), La Biennale di Venezia (Italy), Suntory Hall (Japan), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Festival Internacional Cervatino (Mexico), and Teatro Colón (Argentina).

Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell, JACK is focused on new work, leading them to collaborate with composers John Luther Adams, Chaya Czernowin, Simon Steen-Andersen, Caroline Shaw, Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Reich, Matthias Pintscher, and John Zorn. Upcoming and recent premieres include works by Derek Bermel, Cenk Ergün, Roger Reynolds, Toby Twining, and Georg Friedrich Haas.

JACK operates as a nonprofit organization dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and spread of new string quartet music. Dedicated to education, the quartet spends two weeks each summer teaching at New Music on the Point, a contemporary chamber music festival in Vermont for young performers and composers. JACK has a long-standing relationships with the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program, where they teach and collaborate with students each fall, and the Boston University Center for New Music, where they visit each semester. Additionally, the quartet makes regular visits to schools including Columbia University, Harvard University, New York University, Princeton University, Stanford University, and the University of Washington.

John Luther Adams
This week celebrates the music of the Pulitzer Prize and GRAMMY-winning composer John Luther Adams, whose innovative works are the products of a uniquely American viewpoint, with emphasis on the natural world, the Alaskan wilderness, and the culture of the arctic Inuit people and other indigenous populations. Adams has composed for a wide range of settings including chamber ensembles, orchestra, film, television, voice, and electronics. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in recognition of his orchestral piece Become Ocean, which was also awarded a GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. He received a second GRAMMY for his percussion piece Inuksuit. Adams served as Associated Professor of Composition at Oberlin Conservatory, was named a Rockefeller Fellow, and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. He was the recipient of the 2010 Nemmers Prize in Music Composition, cited by the selection committee for “melding the physical and musical worlds into a unique artistic vision that transcends stylistic boundaries.”

Booklet for Catherine Lamb: String Quartets