By Lewis Spratlan | For Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello | 17′

Title: Streaming: Quartet for Piano and Strings
Composer: Lewis Spratlan
Year Composed: 2004
Instrumentation: For Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello
Duration: 17′
Format: Full Score + 3 Parts
Page Size: 11×14.5 (Print), 11×17 (PDF)
Catalog Number: OM0406

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From the composer:

Streaming attempts to capture in music that vague state we experience as we emerge from sleep, short of being fully awake. Ideas and images appear, merge, retreat, reappear changed, jostle for place. Joyce called it stream-of-consciousness.

A rapid whirring is the main tissue of the piece — call it the buzz of consciousness itself. A variety of musical items materialize through the buzz, some fantastic and strange, some oddly familiar. There are two sustained visits to regions of introspection, the first lyrical and almost narrative, the second a cry from the depths. Other moments seem to stop time in frozen abstraction; still others evoke the remembered graces of the old world. But much of the streaming is bumptious and athletic –– maybe dance, maybe play.

The stream-idea further resonates as earlier moments collect and combine towards the end, just as small streams mingle to make a river, here a river of sound.

Streaming was commissioned by the Ravinia Festival and composed during the period January-March, 2004. It is dedicated to the Centennial Season of the festival.

Commission/Dedication: Commissioned by Ravinia Festival, dedicated to their Centennial Season.
Premiere: First performed June 23, 2004 at the Ravinia Festival, Highland Park, IL., by Gilbert Kalish (piano), Miriam Fried (violin), Atar Arad (viola), and Paul Kosower (cello).
Recording: This work is recorded on an all Spratlan Navona Records album In Memoriam, available as a physical copy or for streaming or download on various services.