Przędzie się nić… IV
(The Thread is Spinning... IV) -
Tadeusz Wielecki

is the title for a cycle of solo works for string instruments. I planned a cycle of five compositions for solo instruments of the string quartet as well as, in conclusion, a string quartet proper. The cycle is not funished yet, lacking a work for viola and the final quartet, yet alongside those works already composed - for cello solo, violin solo, and solo double bass - there now is the work of tonight's concert: The read is Spinning... IV for double bass and chamber ensemble. I can thus hardly claim to be realising my original plan consistently, but I am justified in that every composition within the cycle is designed to be autonomous, to be played alone.

So what unites these works, apart from the common title If writers keep writing the same novel, I keep writing the same composition, especially looking at the subsequent incarnations of the cycle The read is Spinning... A thread keeps weaving, like a thought or an inner voice, and the tape recorder is switched on from time to time to record another piece.

I composed The Thread is Spinning... IV for double bass and chamber ensemble on the request of the brilliant Plural Ensemble of Madrid. The first performance took place in April 2012 at the Auditorio Nacional de Música of that city, directed by Zsolt Nagy, with myself playing the (hair-risingly diffcult) solo part.

Tadeusz Wielecki