i like you (2023)

for string quartet

Commissioned by/ Premiere:

Commissioned by Shelter Music Boston. Premiered at St. Cecilia’s Parish in Boston on September 27th, 2023

Duration:

9 minutes

Program Note:

When Shelter Music Boston asked me to create a work that responds to a song significant to their audiences, I came upon the song Velha Infancia’’ by the Brazilian supergroup, Tribalistas. When I gave this song a listen, I immediately felt that this song epitomizes all the feelings that I associate with love before understanding the actual words. Feelings of passion and intensity but also nostalgia and melancholy. I also found myself remembering the melodies and the words of the chorus ‘’eu gosto de voce,’’ which translates to ‘’I like you.’’ From there I decided to call this work ‘’I like you’’ and began to think about all the angles that I could interpret this phrase musically. I thought about specific timbres and sonorities that utilizes the resonance and encourage the ‘’singing’’ qualities of the instrument. Quoted moments of the original song are interspersed throughout the work but in different contexts to unveil different emotional meanings.