The Riddle (Gåtan)
(2017)

Karin Rehnqvist
(b. 1957)

Composed for
50 For The Future:
The Kronos Learning
Repertoire

Artist Statement

“A melody winds its way through the instruments of the string quartet.
It begins from nowhere and ends in nothingness. Where did it go?
Where did it come from?

“The melody begins in the viola. It is simple, like a folk tune. The violins and cello comment, support, resist. Note by note, phrase by phrase, the music sounds out its path. Repeated notes go quickly from piano to forte. The music pauses, gathers itself—then bursts forth in a rousing polska. The dance takes off in a triple meter, but an unusual one. The beats are of unequal length: the first short, the second twice as long, the third in between.

“The music keeps changing. It passes through varied soundscapes. After a tumble down to the cello’s deepest notes, it swings up to the giddiest heights of the string registers. Here the atmosphere shimmers and trembles. In the foreground the violins play a duet, imitating each other in short phrases. Finally melody and music return to where they began, but now with a darker, more expressive character.

“Warm and expressive, bright and shimmering; dark and raw, light and airy. String instruments can make so many kinds of sounds. Just changing the manner of bowing can produce a near-infinite variety of timbres. You can play closer to the bridge or to the fingerboard. You can press firmly or lightly on the string. You can throw the bow against the string and let it jump. The string quartet also has a huge register. The cello’s lowest string forms a boundary in the bass, but in the treble, with the help of harmonics, there is almost no limit to how high they can go: up and up, until the ear no longer perceives a pitch, only noise.

“As a composer, I set a process in motion. I search at length for the right idea, the one that sings. Composition takes a long time, so the idea must always be precisely right. What needs to be said? I unfurl my emotional antennae and listen in on the world. Then I let the music lead me. I need it to start ‘writing itself’—showing me its possibilities. The music and I hold a conversation. From a state of deep concentration, something new arises. Notes, forms and rhythms emerge that surprise me. The voices find their paths.

“It is an exciting process, and a demanding one. I knead the musical material. In the finished piece only the indispensable should remain. Sometimes it all grinds to a halt. I stop making progress. The main thing is not to give up. Maybe the music just needs a break, some more time to be sculpted by the subconscious.

“Once the score is in place, I meet the musicians. The rehearsal process is always highly enjoyable! Here the music grows, shaped by dedicated musicians with frequent suggestions and insights based on their knowledge, experience and artistic practice. The music now has a body, a character. From blank staff paper, it now feels self-evident that this particular music should exist.

“So where does the music come from? And where does it go?
Will it sweep out on a parabola into space, to touch down at last in some other string quartet, with some other audience, in some other room?
Will it find its way inside of you and play on there?”

English translation by Robin Blanton

Karin Rehnqvist