The Chronic Quintet is another Principal Music Studios composing portfolio piece from the third semester of my B.Mus. studies. It’s basically a string quartet with a bass added with the intent of composing for the full string choir, and it takes cues from Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15, op. 132 and from Light and Shadow from Itay Dvori‘s Four Songs for String Quartet suite.
The artistic theme of the piece is living with chronic pain. It starts in a wonkily uneven 12/8 time, in a manner meant to evoke a painful limp reminiscent of the hip pain I deal with regularly. The middle section evokes a tango-like mood in 5/4 time, symbolic of the temptation and hazard of pharmaceutical pain relief. At the conclusion of the 5/4 section, it barrels into a joyous waltz meant to symbolise the sense of relief that pain relief can bring. It ends with a restatement of the initial theme of pain interleaved with rising statements of the 5/4 theme, indicating the ongoing battle not to overindulge with pain medications and a tense final unresolved chord.
With a primary focus on portfolio composition it’s reasonably short. There are themes I could develop further in a longer version of the piece, however I am quite happy with how it is now, even in its current form.
