Snap Dragon

Snap Dragon for string quartet by Freya Waley-Cohen.

Commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

This work was composed in 2017 and first performed on 4th August 2017 at the New Mexico Museum of Art, USA by the Flux Quartet.

Programme Notes

Snap Dragon plays with the idea of lively conversations between close friends as a starting point for musical structure; often playful, sometimes switching between topics unexpectedly in the excitement of shared ideas, sometimes heating up in debate, and easily diffused by a friendly joke.

This string quartet in brings out the interplay between the individual performers as soloists and as an ensemble in this piece, allowing moments where the individuals can pull apart from each other before coming back together.

A Snap Dragon is a vibrantly coloured and somewhat toxic flower named for looking a little like a dragon’s face.

• Freya Waley-Cohen

Duration: 10 minutes