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| Daedalus | |
| Date Completed: | April 9, 1991 |
| Duration: | 12 minutes |
| Instrumentation: | string quartet 2 violins, viola and cello |
| First Performance: | Daedalus Quartet/Akron (Roger Zahab and Rochelle Pearson, violins, Jerome P. Miskell, viola and James P. Hinkley, cello at the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, University of Pittsburgh on April 20, 1991 |
| Comments: | for Philip Baldwin, James P. Hinkley, Jerome P. Miskell and Rochelle Pearson |
| Program Notes: | Daedalus was written quickly between February 21 and April 9, 1991 for my friends in the Daedalus Quartet - Rochelle Pearson, James Hinkley, Jerry Miskell, and also Philip Baldwin. The five parts are grouped into three larger sections - two pairs on either side of a central music - with fast falling into calm and brooding and empty falling intowild without a break, much like Daedalus' son Icarus falling into the sea after flying too close to the sun. The work is not really about Daedalus but rather is fueled by the idea of the great inventor and aviator, and the dark side of his life. Daedalus and his son Icarus flew out of the labyrinth he had created for the Cretan King Minos after Minos imprisoned him there. They had gone to Crete after an escape from Athens, where Daedalus had murdered his brilliant student Talos out of fear of being eclipsed by the young man. After losing Icarus to the sea, the father landed at Cumae where he built a temple to Apollo. After such a tempestuous life one imagines Daedalus spending his remaining days in stark contemplation. RZ |