Nick Casswell

Papillon
for string quartet

duration: 10 minutes

 

Papillon
The title of the string quartet refers to the double patterned wing of the butterfly. The opening of the piece develops two harmonic regions, which overlap each other, and are an analogy to the unfolding and closing of the insect's wing. This was taken as a premise for the work, which is also an exercise in gestural variation. Two arrival points constantly re-emerge during the piece; these are the notes A, and C-Csharp, and which, at times, are also overlapped.



Nick Casswell
was born in 1974. He completed his undergraduate studies at Dartington College of Arts in 1996 and finished his master's degree at the University of York in 1999. He is currently a PhD student at the University of Leeds where he was awarded the Audrey Pass Charitable Trust Scholarship. He was also awarded the Samsung/Royal British Legion/BKVA Scholarship for study in Korea, and it was here that he undertook a years research into Korean folk music, in particular kaya'gum sanjo. Most recently his string quartet Papillon won the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society Millennium Music Award.

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