• Bryce Dessner
  • Little Blue Something (2012)

  • Chester Music Ltd (World)

Little Blue Something was written for and dedicated to the Kronos Quartet. The premiere was given by them on 31st May 2012 at the Ensems Festival in Valencia, Spain.

  • 2vn.va.vc
  • 7 min

Programme Note

Little Blue Something was written for and dedicated to Kronos Quartet. The premiere was given by them on 31st May 2012 at the Ensems Festival in Valencia, Spain.

In the late 1980’s my sister Jessica heard two Czech musicians, Irena and Vojtech Havel, play in the street in Copenhagen. She bought their only remaining LP and brought it home and that is how I was introduced to the strange and lovely music of the Havels. That record, Little Blue Nothing, was very influential for me as I started to compose music. Their haunting, intertwining, minimalist patterns, played seamlessly on the violla de gamba, are equally inspired by their background as early practitioners and in the folk music of their native country. In 2006 after years of listening to their music and many unreturned letters and dead ends, I finally tracked down the Havels through a new website and invited them to perform in the US for the first time. My Little Blue Something, written for the Kronos Quartet, is a tribute to the Havels’ beautiful music and their friendship. The piece includes two direct quotations from the Havels, played on the cello.

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Little Blue Something
Kronos Quartet

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