Princeton Sound Kitchen presents JACK Quartet

Bobby Ge

Panes of Grisaille

The grisaille technique has always interested me for the challenges posed to its practitioners: the technique limits painters to monochromatic palettes. Beginning as underpainting for stained glass, grisaille eventually flourished as an entire form of its own in the 16th century. Today, art historians depict it as a singularly rigorous exercise that forced artists to more carefully consider their brushstrokes and composition in the absence of color.

Many of my teachers spoke similarly about writing for string quartet: a practice that forced artists to write with economy and intention within a limited color palette. This piece, Panes of Grisaille, is a study in timbre, seeking to pull as much depth and energy from its homogeneous instrumentation as possible. The music leans heavily into sounds and tunings that are only possible on strings, ricocheting through as many techniques as possible while barreling forward with incessant momentum.

I owe much thanks to the astounding musicians of JACK Quartet, to whom this piece is dedicated. I only dared write something so frankly demanding knowing it would be in their hands.

— INTERMISSION —

Christian Quiñones

Quieren Fuego

For years I’ve had a vague memory of a quote from a song I’ve never heard. The only thing I remembered was “Fuego, fuego; quieren fuego” or in English, “Fire, fire; they want fire” but my memory is not actually from the song itself. The memory comes from a hazy late-night conversation I had with a good friend of mine.

I remember he quoted the song and we debated all night about which fire the song was referring to. He suggested the rebellious poor workers burning the sugar plantations that they worked on and I argued that he was clearly referencing the Cerro Maravilla Murders. A tragedy where two unarmed young men were viciously murdered by an undercover police officer as they were trapped by the police in a complot to burn communication towers. Someone also suggested that maybe he was just referring to the use of Molotov. Although our drunken conversation never got anywhere, that quote got stuck on my head.

This year I finally decided to listen to the song. The song Monón composed by Puerto Rican songwriter Roy Brown ends with the full quote “Fuego, fuego; fuego el mundo esta en llamas; fuego, fuego, los Yanquis quieren fuego” or in English, “Fire, fire; the world is on fire; fire, fire, the Yankees want fire.”