A performance of The Feather Quartet can be seen and heard at https://www.facebook.com/LigetiQuartet/videos/1546060428795594/ (14'40" into the video)
'The Feather' and 'The Feather Quartet' are digital scores for an improvising violin and voice (which can be the same musician), and improvising quartet. It is inspired by an extract from a Tove Jansson short story The Scolder from her book The Summer Book. In this extract an elderly grandmother is lying down on a quiet beach looking at a tiny piece of down caught in barbs of a plant leaf. She describes in great detail this feather and how it moves with the slight breeze. Her description evokes a sense of beauty in this minute event and draws attention to the profundity of concentrating on such small details. This profound seeking is at the heart of this piece; the musicians are instructed to seek such detail in the score, and the audience are invited into a careful listening experience that acts as a metaphor for the feather caught momentarily in the plant leaf on a deserted beach.
NOTE: These scores are based in software. Although they share many similar properties to that of paper based/traditional scoring methods, they also benefit from the usability and functionality of dynamic software environments. The visual information will be familiar to the musician and welcomed by a curious spirit of adventure. Above all, these scores are responsive, evolving as the performance progresses – giving the feeling of being alive – and should be considered as co-operative creative partners.
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This score is based in Max/MSP. This must be downloaded and installed prior to operation.
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Some of the folders contain a document called 'get_files'. These provide a link to media files stored on Dropbox that are required to operate the score. These must be downloaded first and placed in each of the corresponding folders.