Offrande
(1996) for string quartet
Luxury, impulse! I draft a phrase
and believe it protects me from this icy world,
that goes through my body like a shoal of sardines.
—Alain Bosquet
“Regrets” (excerpt) from No Matter No Fact
translation by Edouard Roditi
The dark but transcendent imagery of this last stanza from Alain Bosquet’s poem, “Regrets,” has often been very close to me, but never more than in 1996 with the loss of my sister-in-law after a four-year battle with cancer. I was also quite saddened at this time by the news of Toru Takemitsu’s death, since his music has been a profound influence in my own development as a composer. My “offering” (after Varèse’s beautiful pieces of the same name) is in honor, and in celebration, of these two lives—one in my family, and one whose musical path I have found most compelling. Those familiar with Takemitsu’s Garden Rain of 1974 (for brass ensemble) will perhaps recognize the quotation of the haunting melody (solo muted trumpet) which occurs near the end of his piece, and in my quartet (in the second violin) also near the conclusion, following an ensemble passage in harmonics. The piece is dedicated to the memory of Karen van Rossum (1949–96).
—Robert Gibson
duration: ca. 7:30