Poul Ruders

String Quartet No. 3 'Motet'

Score available: KP00247 Ruders writes: Quartet No. 3 'Motet' was written in 1979, commissioned by the Lerchenborg music-week of 1979 during which it was first performed by Quatuor Bernède. 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 appears unaccountably 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 suggestive of boys' choir, monks' processions, and the piercing sound of musical glasses. An ancient world is reborn and becomes the world of today.