Poul Ruders: String Quartet No.3 'Motet': Streichquartett

Programme Note
This short one-movement quartet is a kind of modernization of the 14th century French motets, a cadeau to this weird and fantastic music whose abstract and almost deprecatory, introvert expression appearsunaccountably modern and incredibly ancient at the same time.

MOTET is a sober, cool treatise on rhythm and statics, depicted in a Gothic, crypt-like atmosphere. The almost completely non-vibrato movement is suggestiveof boys’ choir, monks’ processions, and the piercing sound of musical glasses.

An ancient world is reborn and becomes the world of today.

Poul Ruders, 1979