Writing for Strings by Tom Coult

This reflects my interest in baroque playing (I played in a baroque ensemble for several years on a period instrument)
where use of vibrato is minimal. I constantly marvel at what a bow can do simply on open strings – changing from earthy
heft to quicksilver agility in the blink of an eye (or the flick of a wrist).
Indeed I have a bit of an obsession with open strings – one of the most fascinating pieces of string music I know is Louis
Andriessen’s Symphony for Open Strings – 12 solo string players each have a different tuning and never put a finger down
on the fingerboard. Each player, then, contributes their own four notes to a total collection of 48 unique pitches. It’s
an extraordinary sound, and has informed my use of tuned-down instruments in several pieces, giving myself a wider
repertoire of open strings and natural harmonics with which to play. In my String Quartet, the second violin and viola are
tuned down a semitone and tone respectively, meaning that the quartet as a whole has 16 unique open strings with 11
pitches (a normal quartet has only nine unique strings with five pitches).
It was chasing open strings that led me to a novel technique used in the fourth of my violin Études. By pressing down
the middle of three strings anywhere reasonably high up the fingerboard and bowing sul tasto, a string player can play
comfortably on two open strings that aren’t next to one another (the middle one being taken out of commission). Given
my love for open strings, this was a delightful find in itself, but by carefully positioning the bow at the right position in
relationship to where the middle string is stopped, the violinist can sustain, at a low volume, both the two open strings
and the stopped string in the middle. I found an impish delight in filling this short study with sustained three-note chords
(theoretically impossible and visually disarming), and the fragility that this technique prompts in the sound certainly
informs its Zen-like meditative atmosphere.
My next project will be a violin concerto for the wonderful Daniel Pioro, whose playing is exquisitely characterful and
characterfully exquisite. I can’t wait to get started – it may have some open strings in it…
Tom Coult
Tom Coult is a composer born in London in 1988. His work has been
championed by many of the UK’s major orchestras and ensembles,
resulting in a series of large-scale pieces including Beautiful Caged Thing
for soprano Claire Booth and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Sonnet
Machine for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and Spirit of the Staircase
for the London Sinfonietta. In 2017 his St John’s Dance opened the First
Night of the BBC Proms, performed by Edward Gardner and the BBC
Symphony Orchestra. On 29 May the Arditti Quartet will premiere his
String Quartet at the Purcell Room at London’s Southbank Centre.
For more information about Tom Coult and his compositions, head to:
fabermusic.com
©Maurice Foxall
More from our contemporary composers
We are proud to represent a selection of the world’s finest contemporary classical composers
including Thomas Adès, George Benjamin and Oliver Knussen. Find out more about their
works for strings on page 16 of this catalogue.
Faber Music strings Catalogue
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