GENTRIFY Print
for amplified string quartet with delay
 

composed for The Section Quartet: Eric Gorfain and Daphne Chen, violins; Leah Katz, viola; Richard Dodd, cello

duration: 7 minutes

Gentrify was composed in 2004 for the Los Angeles-based Section String Quartet, a unique crossover group who perform arrangements of songs by cutting-edge rock acts such as Radiohead and Tool. In style and conception Gentrify was composed to fit into, and expand, this format. The work takes advantage of the quartet's penchant for amplification by processing the sound via a digital delay, requiring the group to, literally, play along with itself in a strict canon. The form, texture, and timbres of Gentrify are the result of a meditation on urban construction and destruction, specifically the kind involved in gentrification.