Composed 2024: 28 minutes
Steven Banks, Jennifer Choi and the three members of The St. Lawrence gave the première of Reflections and Exaltations in their series ‘Sundays with the St. Lawrence’ at Bing Concert Hall, Stanford University, May 12, 2024. Reflections and Exaltations was commissioned by the St. Lawrence and Persis Drell & James Welch in memory of Geoff Nuttall. Geoff died October 19, 2022, aged 56, having left a huge legacy as co-founder and lead violinist of Stanford’s celebrated ensemble-in-residence, the St. Lawrence String Quartet.
Steven Banks writes: “In the brief time that I knew him, Geoff Nuttall reinvigorated my love of music and exposed me to new dimensions of its ability to unite, thrill, challenge, and inspire. Only a handful of people, concepts, and experiences have made such a fundamental shift to my outlook as a musician. The process of composing Reflections and Exaltations gave me the opportunity to honor Geoff in my own way and meditate on these various illuminative learnings.
Invocation, the first movement, depicts a fantastical, inward journey as I looked for guidance as to how I could best honor the life of someone so uniquely special and important to me. The work starts with a prayer or invitation for an ancestor to join me on the way—my maternal grandfather, who always served as a ‘north star’ and role model for the person I aspire to be. The journey has three major destinations, each with its own lesson to teach. These are the musical ‘altars’ of Brahms, Ravel, and Scriabin—three composers whose presence I most often feel when composing. Then comes a dialogue with my travel partner in which we attempt to make sense of what we have seen. After some fretful rumination, we understand that there is no one right message to glean, and that I have to use the wisdom that I have been exposed to. My grandfather eventually fades back to his resting place, leaving me with both the terror and comfort of this reality.
The second movement, Quinten, is a celebration of individuality. During the 2022 Spoleto USA Festival, I remember Geoff excitedly showing me a musical idea in the first movement of Haydn’s String Quartet, Op. 76, No. 2 (Quinten – ‘The Fifths’). This motive includes four dramatic swells, repeated one after the other. We connected over just how strange and ahead-of-its-time this motive was. Haydn is well-known to have said: "I was cut off from the world. There was no one to confuse or torment me, and I was forced to become original." This idea also connects deeply with advice that has stuck with me from two of my other greatest mentors, pianist André Watts, and jazz musician and teacher David Baker. Geoff Nuttall certainly had the courage to let out his individual musical voice as a performer and music director, and it connected with people in an infectious way. I tried to let my musical mind lead me wherever it naturally wanted to go in this movement without censoring or over-thinking.
My intention in writing the Meditation movement was to give audience and performers a chance to reflect on the ultimate reality of the universe—interconnectedness. Geoff was so skilled at bringing people together through music, and I wanted to provide a moment for people to close their eyes and experience the power and magic of a collective moment of awareness in the concert hall. Here, the string quartet invites the audience to focus on their breath by creating sounds of inhalation and exhalation, and compositional techniques inspired by medieval chant and the music of Arvo Pärt, hopefully bring forth a moment of timelessness.
It is no secret that Geoff’s favorite composer was Joseph Haydn. In writing the finale, I was listening to Haydn non-stop. Geoff spent much of his life as an evangelist for Haydn’s music, so I wanted to take in as much as I could. As Geoff was so full of life and love, I wanted to create a moment of joyous celebration that would perhaps leave us all with a smile. Towards the end, there is a final reflective moment, full of plagal cadences (aka the ‘Amen’ cadence) and a hopeful lyricism that represents us watching Geoff’s soul finally ascend to the heavens.”