Frida Sketches (2012) - Arditti Quartet by Paul Max Edlin published on 2016-05-05T09:52:22Z Frida Sketches for string quartet by Paul Max Edlin Programme Note: The Mexican painter Frida Kahlo had an extraordinary life. Born in 1907, she died at middle age in 1954. At six she developed polio and a terrifying bus accident in her teens meant that she suffered life-long physical and health problems. She married the Mexican artist and muralist Diego Rivera, who was twenty years her senior. They had a tempestuous marriage, divorced and remarried. No doubt due to her illness and her confinement to bed or being strapped in a body cast, Frida became self obsessed and made many extraordinary self-portraits. These self-portraits tell us as much about Mexican culture, religion and symbolism, about the tragedy of the country at that time, its politics and its history as they do about Frida and her love-hate relationship with Diego. Frida also kept a diary, and that is yet another fascinating glimpse into this surreal artist’s equally surreal world. As a composer who has been surrounded by visual art all my life and for whom surrealist painting is particularly relevant, Frida Kahlo’s work excites me. Furthermore, I have a love for symbolism in music and enjoy transferring extra-musical ideas into music itself – thus a piece becomes even more than its apparent surface. A piece ‘becomes’ what it is because of what inspires it and what drives it. Using ciphers, Frida’s name, the names of those who were around her, the name of her home, etc all ‘create’ the musical notes. The diary inspires the musical structure – especially the passages which are ‘stream-of-consciousness’ that are actually highly poetic and highly rigorous in design. Finally, the music of Lotti’s ‘Crucifixus’ permeates passages, and so it should as this is music that alludes to Frida’s world and her own crucifixion as a result of that tragic accident. Frida Sketches is a sketch about the woman and her world, and it is a starting point for me to track a new path. The work was written for the Arditti Quartet to whom it is dedicated. This performance, by the Arditti Quartet, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 3rd June 2012. © Paul Max Edlin 2012 Genre String Quartet Comment by Christopher Larkins | Composer An exceptional work. Thank you for sharing. 2017-11-27T10:44:34Z Comment by Christopher Larkins | Composer sublime and strangely moving 2017-11-27T10:40:47Z Comment by Christopher Larkins | Composer Love how organically this more rhymic sequence just suddenly evolved. 2017-11-27T10:38:08Z Comment by Christopher Larkins | Composer Wow, your music is so rich and full it feels there is more that a quartet at work! Marvelous. 2017-11-27T10:33:59Z Comment by Göran Kjellgren Superbly played! 2017-10-25T04:19:53Z Comment by Julian Abbott Wonderful, very interesting textures and very good overall structure , Paul. I really liked that. 2016-05-05T13:12:53Z