4 players: string quartet - Free Dive

 Ensemble: string quartet

Duration: 3 minutes

Commissioned by: Catherine Gregory

Premiere: Lyrica Chamber Concert Series, Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township, NJ

Published by: Yes Daedalus Music

Note:

“Free Dive” was inspired by divers who descend to extreme depths on a single breath. The piece takes about the same amount of time that it takes for a diver to go from the surface to the very bottom of a dive—sometimes up to 400 feet. Free divers describe seeing visions: hallucinations of mermaids, fish, and other things as they descend deeper into the abyss.

The piece starts with the melody in a very high register and ends in a much lower register, finding an ecstatic catharsis as the music gradually gives in to the pull of gravity. It was written for Catherine Gregory and Ian Rosenbaum, and is arranged in this version for Siggi String Quartet.