Mountains of the moon

Composed: 1985
Duration: 9 minutes
Instrumentation:  String Quartet

PROGRAM NOTES

Mountains of the Moon was inspired by the Ruwenzori Mountain Range on the Uganda-Zaire border, one of the sources of the Nile. There is said to be an aura of mystery surrounding the peaks. Since ancient times, the range has been referred to as the Mountains of the Moon. This quartet was composed during an early period in my career when I loved using extended techniques - asking the musicians to play in non-traditional ways. I also liked to use proportional notation where there is no meter, and messages to the musicians in different sections of the music tell them to play a section for a certain number of seconds. Mountains of the Moon uses those techniques.