String Quartet No. 2, “Distance”

String Quartet No. 2, “Distance” was written during the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. In fact, as I write these words, the pandemic is ongoing, without a clear end in sight. People throughout the country and around the world have been “self-isolating” and engaging in “social distancing,” i.e., keeping a distance of at least six feet between themselves and anyone their not quarantined with. Schools are closed, unemployment numbers are soaring, and gatherings of all sorts—business meetings, support groups, book clubs, etc.—have been meeting over video conference platforms. It all seems to be working—current estimates are that the death toll in the U.S. may not be quite a catastrophic as originally projected—but the relational results have been complicated, to say the least.

This piece was intentionally written in such a way that it can be performed remotely, i.e., via video chat. It can, therefore, be played by a string quartet whose members are observing social distancing. In a live performance, players sit at different areas on the stage or within the performance space, keeping at lest six feet between each player.

As is the case with a vast majority of my music, String Quartet No. 2, “Distance” is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This means that you may copy it, share it, give it away, perform it, record it—you can even make changes to it—as long as you’re not doing it for commercial purposes (i.e., with the express purpose of profiting from it financially). If you perform this piece in a video chat format, please record it and post it to YouTube, Vimeo, or another free video sharing site. (If you post it to Facebook, please tag @chrismassacomposer in the post.) Then email me at [email protected] to tell me about it.

Duration:  approx. 30 minutes