Program Note

Balderdash begins and ends with amplifier feedback: a sound that quickly makes us bring our fingers to our ears! The piece imagines an alternate world in which music is heard between the feedback - a sort of sub/hyper-sonic sound world which takes place in mere seconds.

With this in mind, the string quartet explores musical ideas inspired by electric guitar, including distortion, white noise, whammy bars, power-chords, dive-bombs, wah-wah, phaser effects, slap bass, and of course, speaker feedback. Balderdash makes high use of punk rock rhythms, dissonance, and percussive-based jams, which morph in and out of bluegrass, grunge, prog-rock, metal, and . . . disco.

Given the piece was commissioned for a competition, I felt it might be fun to experiment with a battle-of-the-bands theme within the string quartet itself. Throughout Balderdash, players go rogue (especially the cello!), engage in one-upmanship, jam, duel, challenge, compete, interrupt, surrender, work together in teams, and cooperate as one. The piece is intended to be theatrical and encourages the quartet to perform with abandon.

Reviews & Words

Balderdash, the Holly Harrison work, was of particular fascination to your humble correspondent because it presented the opportunity for quartets to move outside their comfort zones, and really innovate in an alternative soundscape to the norm for string quartets with fascinating outcomes. Indeed, Silo Collective co-ordinator Leta Keens, whose members funded the commission, had the following to say at the event: ‘We’ve now heard Balderdash eight times, and it’s still a revelation every time and will be, I’m sure, every time it’s played from now on’. Full article here.

(John Garran, Cut Common)

Holly Harrison’s Balderdash was exactly as intended, a lot of mad fun in the Lewis Carroll sense (from whose literature she draws inspiration), embracing musical absurdities in a digestible way. Germany’s Goldmund Quartett even removed their jackets and went black T-shirts to the amusement of the crowd…Full article here.

(Josephine Vains, Classic Melbourne)

Performances

2 May 2024, Dudok Quartet, Canberra International Music Festival, Albert Hall, ACT

20 April 2024, Dudok Quartet, Klub Żak, Gdańsk, Poland

3 October 2023, Eliot Quartett, Kirchberg an der Jagst Castle, Germany

13 December 2022, Chroma Quartet, Glebe Town Hall, NSW

4 December 2022, Chroma Quartet, Fairground Follies, Bowral, NSW

16 October 2022, Partridge String Quartet, Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, Reardon Theatre, VIC

1 October 2022, Australian Youth Orchestra Chamber Players, QSO Studio, Brisbane, QLD

25 September, 2022 Queensland Symphony Orchestra String Quartet, QSO studio, Brisbane, QLD

5 March, 2022, Partridge String Quartet, Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne, VIC

1 March, 2022, Partridge String Quartet, Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne, VIC

26 January 2020, Goldmund Quartet, 2020 String Quartet Biennale, Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Dutch Premiere

14 November 2019, Goldmund Quartet, Klassic Underground, Fellheim, Synagoge, Germany

24 October, 2019 Eliot Quartett, Classic in the Club, Wiesbaden, Germany

24 July 2019, Bloodwood Quartet, Carinya Christian School, Tamworth, NSW

5 July 2018, Goldmund Quartet, Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition - Heats (Australian National Academy of Music)

5 July 2018, Callisto Quartet, Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition - Heats (Australian National Academy of Music)

4 July 2018, Eliot Quartett, Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition - Heats (Australian National Academy of Music)

4 July 2018, Gildas String Quartet, Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition - Heats (Australian National Academy of Music)

4 July 2018, Thaleia Quartet, Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition - Heats (Australian National Academy of Music)

3 July 2018, Baum Quartet, Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition - Heats (Australian National Academy of Music)

3 July 2018, Idomeneo Quartet, Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition - Heats (Australian National Academy of Music)

3 July 2018, Quatuor Agate, Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition - Heats (Australian National Academy of Music)