Idyllily (2000) by Marc Sabat

composed by Martin Arnold, John Oswald, Marc Sabat and Richard Wagner

for 11 strings:
6 Violins, 2 Violas, 2 Violoncellos, Contrabass
note:
“Idyllily” is the result of a series of experimental
tranformations applied to Richard Wagner’s composition
“Siegfried Idyll”. The accidentals and dynamics have been
removed, the music has been diatonically transposed, legato
articulations have been replaced with separated bowing, tempo
has been substantially increased, certain pitches at the end of
phrases have been sustained to produce modal pedal points. The
music should be played with detailed and idiosyncratic phrasing
in the individual parts, whilst remaining for the most part
within a mp – mf dynamic and maintaining a light, baroque
articulation. It is a kind of imaginary “time-shifting”
dissolving the typically Romantic surface
characteristics of Wagner’s score.
Open strings and harmonics may be used often,
vibrato ought to remain modest and ornamental.