The sextet represents one of the first works I’ve written since my student days that employs a more or less traditional chamber music combination, in this case, a sextet of two violins, two violas and two cellos. Brahms, most notably, composed two works for this combination, but many other composers have employed it as well, including Mendelssohn, Schoenberg, and Martinu.

The form of this work is somewhat unusual, in that the three movements become progressively shorter. The first movement, Dance, is a large, complex work in itself, about eleven minutes in duration. The second movement, Elegy, composed originally for string orchestra as a memorial for the victims of September 11^th, is four and a half minutes long, and the finale, Scherzo, lasts just three and a half minutes.

In this way I’ve attempted to construct a sort of emotional pyramid, where the first movement would be the base, moving through the less complicated and more accessible second movement, to the light, quick energy of the third.

The majority of the music in this work is dance music, due mostly no doubt to the fact that I was sketching this sextet at the very same time I was composing my Suite from Pyramus and Thisbe, a ballet suite which was premiered just two months prior to the sextet. But dance, in some way or other, has been at the core of most of my music – not only in its rhythmic activity, but in its depiction of motion, whether fast or slow, angular or fluid.

The sextet was premiered by the Seattle Chamber Music Society on July 22, 2002 at the Lakeside School:

Scott Yoo, Viviane Hagner, violins
Marcus Thompson, Toby Hoffman, violas
Bion Tsang, Toby Saks, cellos