Performances

Premiere performances: Cleveland Chamber Collective, for the Cleveland Chamber Music Guild, October 11, 2009, and at Christ Episcopal Church, on December 7, 2010, greater Cleveland, Ohio.

Ruth Lenz and Carol Laube, violins, Dustin Budish, viola, and Peter Lenz, ‘cello, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada, January 31, 2013.

Program Note

At the beginning of Epigram you will hear a three note motive closely related to Ludwig van Beethoven’s famous “muss es sein?” (must it be?) motto, the answer to which “es muss sein” (it must be) formed the basis of the last movement of his last string quartet (Op. 135). This could be taken to be a serious metaphysical question, yet there is a tale told that Beethoven was in fact inspired by the most mundane of occurrences, namely a man who was trying to wriggle his way out of paying the composer his subscription fee! For this reason, I chose the title word which my dictionary defines as “a terse, sage or witty, often paradoxical saying.” This work is in one movement.