Living Water

Simon Davies

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String Quartet

2022

28 min.

Cello

Strings, bowed

Viola

Violin

Program Notes: The title of the quartet, "Living Water" is derived from the hypothetical language proto-Indo-European, based on comparative evidence in which the relevant reconstructed cognates are: *wodr, 'water' (one of the approximately 1 % of words represented in all of the Indo-European language groups) and the root *h2eP - interpreted to mean 'living water' (as in water with movement, for example a river). That water is strongly represented in reconstructions of the earliest accessible form of language is not surprising, but its use here is to emphasise this point - and it is intended as a double meaning, both the physical stuff, here acting as a source metaphor for each movement, and as a meditation on how, by necessity, we 'live' our lives with water. This is brought into sharp relief by those who through illness suffer the constraints of restricted fluid intake or the threat of bodily fluid excess. The sub-tiltles of movements two and four are direct quotes from people with kidney failure in whom the 'milieu interior' of water homeostasis is severely disrupted. The first movement depicts the life-giving force of water - represented here as the water cycle, the second the effects of lack or water (thirst, dehydration), the third water's purifying and cleansing properties and the last movement the destructive power of water.
Recording Notes: Performed by the Ligeti String Quartet Recording Engineer Nick Powell
Ensemble Name: The Ligeti Quartet