String Quartet (2000)
Premiered by Susie Kelly String Quartet, Cornell University, 2001
Published by Eafit University, Medellín, Colombia, 2002.
Duration: 11 min.
The rhythmic and melodic material of Diego Vega’s String Quartet is mostly derived from a variety of Colombian folk dances. The first movement is an overture, which, clearly delineated by its metric modulations and changes of character, introduces the main material that will be developed throughout the next three movements. The dances explored in this first movement are pasillo, contradanza, cumbia and mapalé. The second movement has a very concentrated character. Its violent quality is achieved through extreme dynamic constrasts, permanent displacement of rhythmic accents, and fast transformation of the material. The aggressive character of the second movement is balanced by the lyricism of the third movement. The long melody of the third movement, composed on the back-ground of a chromatic counterpoint, is inspired on the slow bambuco, a dance from the central mountainous area of Colombia. The last movement is based on the mapalé, a dance from the Atlantic region of Colombia. The fast and very rhythmic character of this dance integrates the melodic material of the previous movements and concludes the work.
This recording: Manolov String Quartet
This recording: Cuarteto Latinoamericano, May 2012, Festival Latinoamericano de Música, Caracas, Venezuela