Cacodemonic (2017) for string quartet

Cacodemonic for string quartet was the second piece I wrote using the “painted sound” approach first explored in Apertures. As with Apertures, I thought of form in very simple terms: dots that eventually become lines. I followed the same process of layering, improvised a form of “dots” eventually getting longer, mapped a pitch structure onto the crude form, shaped the piece dynamically, orchestrated different filters, and so on, and in this way, the piece gradually came into focus until it was fully notated. It wasn’t until after I finished the piece that I discovered that Paul Klee once said, “A dot is just a line that went for a walk.” This, in essence, is what Cacodemonic, named after one of Klee’s works, is about.

The piece was premiered on June 7, 2018 by the Mivos Quartet at June in Buffalo.