Pettibone

Pettibone, for piano quartet, is named after a road not far from where I grew up. As far as I know, the name is pronounced “PET-ti-bone”—emphasis on the first syllable—however, one day many years ago, it came to light that a certain friend of mine, having only seen the road sign and never heard it said aloud, amusingly thought the word was pronounced “pet-TI-bo-nee” (think “Antigone”). Needless to say, my friends and I never pronounced it the same way again. Pettibone, therefore, is an exploration of an ever-shifting “syllabic stress” as it might apply to short musical phrases. There are three such phrases in the piece; each begins at two notes’ length, but gradually expands, accordion-style, as notes are inserted into the middle. Eventually, the phrases max out at 13 notes apiece. Pettibone was written in 2014, and premiered at the 2014 Zodiac Festival in Valdeblore, France by violinist Xueao Yang, violist Dragana Loncar, cellist Logan Dailey, and pianist Jennifer Howell.

Recording: Erin Aldridge, violin; James Przygocki, viola; Csaba Onczay, cello; Chih Yi Chen, piano (Bloomington, Indiana, 2016)