Johannes Maria Staud

Cahier des équilibres mouvants

At the suggestion of the wonderful Kuss Quartet, I am returning after a long absence to the genre of the string quartet—that chamber music ensemble which, with its intensity, homogeneity, and inexhaustible variety of sound, has for centuries been regarded as a special realm of musical thought. The title *Cahier des équilibres mouvants*—"Notebook of Shifting Equilibria"—refers to a formally interlinked collection of constantly transforming musical states. The starting point was the idea of ecological equilibrium. It describes how ecosystems, in which species coexist with other species and their environment, are organized in a state of stability. However, ecosystems are not immutable: disturbances and unexpected chain reactions can occur, although ecosystems typically recover to a state of ecological equilibrium—one that need not correspond to the initial state. This topic, in all its complexity, is particularly urgent in times of global warming and the worldwide destruction of natural habitats. This metaphor—the transformation, the mixed state, the precarious stability of an ecosystem—fascinates me immensely as a composer. I envision the string quartet as a complex, resilient system: four closely interconnected voices that can respond to one another in sensitive, flexible, and unexpected ways. Disturbances and shifts are inherent to the nature of this system; equilibrium does not arise as a state of rest, but as the result of constant adaptation. The five-movement work (I: approx. 8' – II: approx. 3' – III: approx. 2' – IV: approx. 4' – V: approx. 1') therefore follows less of a linear progression and instead consists of a network of transitions, transformations, and intermediate states. Textures emerge, thicken, lose their balance, and find new forms of stability—equilibria that exist only temporarily and change again in the very next moment. In this sense, *Cahier des équilibres mouvants* is conceived as a musical exploration of processes of transformation, adaptation, and coexistence: a sonic notebook of fragile systems, wavering stabilities, and productive tension between order and change.

Binding: stapled