Tetrad I

Tetrad I, was composed in 1973. As its name suggests, it is in four movements; but in this work the composer was preoccupied with the way in which a movement is heard differently in a new context, and so all the movements with the exception of the fourth are heard twice; though the movements are repeated unchanged (with the exception of short linking passages at their ends), the reversed order of movements the second time around allows the listener to hear each of them in a new light. At the same time, another idea was important in the conception of this piece: that of the eternal cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth. So the first movement, on its return at the ostensible end of the work, fades out on an inconclusive harmonic: the cycle could begin again.

The order of movements in the complete work, which lasts about 17 minutes, is

I (slow) - II (moderately slow but complex and agitated); III (slow but nervous) – IV (very fast), III, II – I.

Pawlu Grech

Parts included in the pdf:  Vilion 1st, Violin 2nd, Viola & Cello, Full Score