Taken for Granite, 1st mvt of String Quartet No. 1 Skimming Rock & Skipping Stones

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Inspired by the Anthem Rock bands of the 70's and 80's – groups like Yes, Kansas, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd. Anthem Rock has hard driving beats with intricate melodic lines and layers of different sounds – all features of the classical music I gravitate toward. This is not a pastiche of any particular song or band, but rather a homage to the artistry of these musicians.


Skimming Rock & Skipping Stones has three movements. As word play, colloquialisms, and double entendré are common for song and album titles in the rock world, I indulge in the same practice.

"Taken for Granite" - 1st Movement

"Salt of the Earth" - 2nd Movement

"Clean Slate" - 3rd Movement



Even the title of the entire piece is a play on words "Skimming Rocks & Skipping Stones"


In geological terms there are three types of rock

     Igneous

     Sedimentary

     Metamorphic


Granite is igneous, salt is sedimentary and slate is metamorphic. I then tied these rocks to colloquialisms.


The Edinburgh Quartet premiered this piece in June 2008.


"Taken for Granite" is a movement with pyrotechnics for the 1st Violin, playing the roll of guitar riffs and solos indicative of the anthem rock genre. While the piece is performed completely acoustic, many of the distortion effects are emulated through performance techniques.


For more information about the music of Chip Michael visit my website:

ChipMichael.com

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