Afterwards

AFTERWARDS… presents music that imagines a world different from the one we find ourselves in today, music that strives towards a sound that might be heard in a world where violence is no longer the ready answer to people’s disputes, a world where reason prevails, a calmer world. On this album, the vehicle for this expression of hope is the string quartet, an ensemble about which composer Stanley Grill writes, “it is the string quartet that has mostly occupied my attention over the years, as the intimate sound of a small consort of bowed strings is the perfect medium to express the contemplative sound landscape I strive to create.”

The album opens with a three movement quartet entitled, Afterwards, there were no more wars (from a future history). The music imagines a time, when a child might open a school history book and read those words. “In my imagination, there exists another world – one far better than this one – where people recognize the benefits of working together to the betterment of all and finding non-violent solutions to conflicts.”

Dreaming of a Better World, as the title suggests, is another work in Stanley Grill’s Music for Peace series. “While the optimism of my youth in the ’60s that real change in how humans deal with one another was possible has largely collapsed in the face of reality, as the world we live in today turns increasingly ugly, it becomes all the more important for me to bring beautiful music into the world that dreams of something better.” Each movement is characterized by rising swirls of sound that symbolize hope for our better future.

The Time is Past is intended to capture an innocence preserved in Appalachian folk tunes that form the basis of the four movements of this quartet. “The melodies in this work were taken from a small but wonderful collection of Jean Ritchie’s, one of my favorite books of music. These are not settings of the songs for string quartet, but rather music that reflects back on those tunes, as if seen through the distance of time and haze of memories from my childhood.”

The Beckoning Stars attempts to capture the complex feelings evoked by looking up at the vast night field of stars. “The high melody in the first violin is the distant stars, so out of reach. The cello is me, grounded on earth, unable to do more than think about and yearn for the stars. At the end, the stars continue to flash indifferently in the sky, while below on earth I fall silent…”

Performed by string players of Camerata Philadelphia: Luigi Mazzocchi and Blake Espy, violins; Jonathan Kim, viola; Stephen Framil, cello and music director.
Produced by Ralph Farris. Recorded, engineered and mixed by Randall Crafton at Kaleidoscope Studio, Union City, NJ.