Edward Cowie In Flight Music quatuors à cordes n 3 à 5 Quatuor Kreutzer

Edward Cowie describes himself as 'the musical equivalent of a plein air visual artist', with compositions evolving from sketches or paintings done in situ. The natural world is inspiration for much of his music and on this album he focuses on fl ight; mainly of birds and insects. In String Quartet No. 3 ‘In Flight Music’ he adds contrast with two fl ying-machine-titled movements Hang-gliders and Vapour Trails . String Quartet No.5 ‘Birdsong Bagatelles’ features 24 brief movements, which collectively cover all the major and minor keys of the chromatic scale. Each piece is named after a bird (Wren, Blackbird, Magpie ...) but Cowie avoids the Messiaen-style approach and instead focuses on the visual displays of birds and their habitat, rather than bird song. String Quartet No.4 explores mortality. The quartet plays a continuous, slowly ascending emotional and sensual ‘hill-climb’, which ends with a hymn-like theme.