Quartet #3, The Automotive (1998)

Professional; about 30 minutes total. Five character pieces, concerning automobiles (and one bulldozer) named after animals. This is my mostly humorous - but not altogether fond - look at the modern horseless carriage.  Auto manufacturers through the years have named many of their products for beautiful or powerful phenomena of the natural world (Cougar, Mirage, Saturn, Storm, Galaxy), or rugged cultural icons (Apache, Rodeo, etc.), in hopes, I presume, that the mystique of these things would rub off onto their namesakes and fuel the consumer's passion to possess them.  $25, including piano score, parts, and demo disk; order here. Professional recording by the Ceruti Quartet available, $10 (includes quartets 1-3).

I. Impala (about 7:18) - My target here, named for a swift and graceful antelope of central Africa, is the heavy, long, big horsepower, wide-wheelbase American family sedan... essentially interchangeable with any similar model by other manufacturers, including most station wagons and, more recently, oversize SUV’s.  It was conceived in the era of chrome and tailfins, along with the "See the USA in a Chevrolet" theme which is paraphrased here.  The movement proceeds from start to finish without repetition of any large section, suggesting a one-way trip from point A to destination B.

II. Caterpillar (about 3:00) - This is actually a trademark for continuous metal tracks powered by toothed wheels, used for moving over rough or muddy ground, as in a bulldozer; it is also the name of a company that makes these and other large construction vehicles.  This movement calls for some vocalizing and foot stomping.

III. Beetle (about 4:06) - This stilted waltz is my homàge to the original Volkswagon, the car so homely it was cute, the car regarded so fondly by its legions of owners, proud of their thrift and eschewal of comfort, that they gave it a name: the Bug, or Beetle.  The recent superficial return of this design... sleek, safe, reliable, its engine in the front... cannot possibly recapture the mystique of the original. At one point the violist throws out a set of wrenches.

IV. Jaguar (about 8:37) - This movement is a lament, concerned more with the living jaguar of the western tropics (Panthera onca) than the handmade British personal luxury car.  The jaguar is a solitary animal of the tropical forest, and, like all the big cats, has not benefited from the encroachments of humans.  The 4-wheeled Jaguar does share some qualities with the feline version: it is low, sleek, quietly powerful, and (owing to its great expense) usually observed only one at a time. 

V. Mustang (about 6:06) - Introduced in 1964, the Ford Mustang started out as a light, sporty, economical car of innovative design.  Within 5 years it had been corrupted into a gas-guzzling muscle car, ugly, but capable of speeds well in excess of anything sensible.  It is this second Mustang that provides the imagery of this movement: speed, tension, rock music blaring from open windows; the driver, perhaps doing some guzzling of his own, guns the engine to impress a date, and, inevitably, fails at the end to hold a tight curve, landing the car upside down.