JUSTIN WILLIAMS
Movement for String Quartet
CREDITS
Recorded at Iwaki Auditorium, ABC, Melbourne, Naarm, in November 2023
Australian String Quartet (2023)
Dale Barltrop – Violin I
Francesca Hiew – Violin II
Christopher Cartlidge – Viola
Michael Dahlenburg – Cello
Composed by Justin Williams 2020
Produced by Stephen Snelleman
Engineered, Mixed & Mastered by Alex Stinson
Artwork – Jim Tsinganos Illustration
Art Direction – Cul-de-Sac Creative
Angelina Zucco – ASQ Chief Executive
Sophie Emery ASQ Operations Manager
Special thanks to Just Williams for his valued support of this release.
PROGRAM NOTES
I started to write this piece at the end of 2018 and completed it during the early phase of the pandemic. At some point in time, a musical theme occurred to me, one that kept rolling around in my head, and I decided to write it down to develop. With a love of string quartets and having had the great fortune of playing many of them, it’s a medium I felt comfortable in and so I decided to set this theme to a short movement for string quartet.
The movement is mostly melody driven and compact by design, comprising short and distinct, contrasting sections. From the dramatic opening flourish to a G minor chord, the quartet makes its way through a turbulent introduction, which is built on chromaticism and aided by augmented 4ths and diminished 5ths to create tension. This spiraling tension leads to a place of suspended unrest, fervently expressed in the viola line and reaffirmed by the first violin’s anguished call, which serves to dissolve this state of inner conflict into a more tranquil state of being, presented in G Major. This place of peace is brief, as the material winds its way towards the central theme of the movement, presented by the second violin in A minor. This central theme is in fact the origin of the piece, with the movement developed outwardly from this point.
It’s a work that explores colour and mood and oscillates between tension and its release. Themes imbued with intense drama move quickly to something more reflective, tumultuous, jocular; abrupt changes of character are a feature of the movement. It embraces textural contrast, and it calls for virtuosity from all four instrumentalists.
Copyright © Justin Williams 2023
BIOGRAPHY
Justin Williams holds the position of Assistant Principal Viola with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and was the founding violist of the Tinalley String Quartet (TSQ). He has performed as Principal Viola with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian World Orchestra, Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra (AOBO), Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Australia ProArte, and as ripieno viola with Australian Chamber Orchestra.
As a member of Tinalley String Quartet, Justin shared in the experience of winning the 9th Banff International String Quartet Competition and the 2005 Australian Chamber Music Competition. With TSQ he has toured extensively throughout Australia, Europe and North America and has released several recordings with Move Records, Decca Australia and ABC Classic.
As a composer, Justin released his ‘Movement for String Quartet’ in 2020, which has since been performed throughout Australia and in Europe by the Australian String Quartet. In 2022, Justin was the recipient of a Sydney International Piano Competition Composing the Future juror’s prize for his ‘Three Intermezzi’ for solo piano. In 2023, his set of songs ‘Three Pieces for String Quartet and Voice: Love – Despair – Hope’, was commissioned and premiered at Blackheath Chamber Music Festival, and his first Symphony was jointly commissioned by Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra and premiered by QSO under the direction of Maestro Umberto Clerici as part of the Brisbane Festival. At the beginning of 2024, Justin wrote a duo for violin and cello (Theme and Variations), and a piece for solo piano, commissioned by the Australian National Academy of Music.
