4 mod 4 (1998)
Flute, clarinet, violin, cello
7:30
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Program Notes
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The primary aim of 4 mod 4 is to establish both the distinctiveness of each instrumental voice of the ensemble--flute, clarinet, violin, and cello--and to explore their interaction within the collective.

Quoting the composer: "In social worlds, the individual and the groups seem perpetually at odds.  Either an individual's identity is subsumed by the group or the group becomes fractured by the individuals that comprise it.  In abstract worlds of mathematics and music, however, individuality and unity can sometimes be thought of as the same thing.  For example, the algebraic expression 4 mod 4 = 0 characterizes a collection of four individual elements as a single unit.  Likewise, 4 mod 4 treats the four instruments, flute, clarinet, violin, and cello, as individual elements that unite in a whole."

The promotion of individuality and unity is a fitting expression for the characterization of this intricate work, and Fritts realizes his stated objective in a combination of ways. On one level, 4 mod 4 comprises something in the order of ten separate sections, and yet the markers for the points of division are not celebrated in standard compositional ways: if the markers register at all it is largely after the fact, and hence the role of each individual sections is subsumed within the domain of the whole. But the whole comes to represent something greater than the sum of the parts on an entirely different level, for the rhythmic complexity of each insturmental line has an in situ quality to it that only makes sense in the context of its surroundings. Rhythmic complexity rarely abates, even in the later homophonic sections of the work, but this particular musical parameter is constantly coupled with an open approach to registral spacing where it is not uncommon to find an instrumental line called upon to cycle through its range in the space of but a few rapidly articulated pitches.

The fabric of 4 mod 4 comes into greater relief in measured paces. The opening of the piece, lasting less than thirty-five seconds, presents in microcosm much of what is to be encountered throughout. The admixture of solo lines and groupings of two or more instruments (as lead gestures or as accompaniment), together with the "clipped" nature ofr both the linear arcs and the supporting/punctuating vertical sonorities: these events portend of what is to come. If any one instrument dominates here it is the cello, which emerges late in the section, and, standing apart from the other three members of the quartet, most clearly establishes its own voice while drawing the section to a close.

Tension continually swells and subsides in subsequent sections as each voice comes more and more to assume a persona of its own, and is spotlighted--singly or partnered with other voices--in melodic fragments that are extended in scope relative to their surroundings. And yet herein the irony, for the most distinct each voice becomes, the better it is able to participate with others without losing its identity, a phenomenon witnessed in at least three distinct locations. In the first instance, just under a third of the way through 4 mod 4, a near tuttie passage gives over to a protracted duet for clainet and cello. The two instrumental lines phase in and out of association, and thus aurally project both inter- and independence.

The subsequent section explores the grouping of various two-voice cominbinations. The section, however, is best regarded as preparatory for the next, wherein a solo fluteline leads to another protracted duet, now featuring flute and violin (initially underpinned by the cello). In this duet, however, the two voices support one another to a much greater degree than had been the case with the clarinet and cello duet, and ultimately coalesce in identical rhythms. Four-voice textures dominate to the homophonic close of the piece, where the intense energy of 4 mod 4 is gradually released.

Recording Notes: Performed by the University of Iowa Center for New Music, David Gompper, conductor; Gro Sandvik, flute; Yasmin Flores, clarinet, Kelly Arne, violin, Amy Phelps, violoncello. From the Center for New Music CD, Into to the Future, on Albany Records, TROY 956.
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