Jonathan Newman

I particularly like the string quartet’s ability to sound “as one voice”—like a giant quartet stop on an organ—juxtaposed with the ability to produce different (many more than four, even) colors simultaneously. Quartets can also show off rhythmic drive and syncopation like nothing else, and so both movements of Wapwallopen are crammed with mixed meters, motors and grooves, and intricate counterpoint.

My title choices sometimes derive from Delaware Indian words from Northeastern Pennsylvania, especially when the title is demanded before the piece is written. Wapwallopen, besides sounding quite alliteratively exciting, is also a little town southwest of Wilkes-Barre, PA, across the Susquehanna River from a nuclear power plant.