About "Pèlerinage Fantastique"
“The String Quartet Now, or From Where I Sit … A Very Personal View […]
Other composers are pushing the acceptable technical boundaries harder. The […] composer Ansgar Beste […] has developed an entire language based around the ‘prepared’ string instrument. He follows earlier quartets by Pano da Costa, George Crumb, Stephen Montague, Sidika Özdil, etc., involving the use of objects held in the hands during performance. However, Beste takes this practice to new levels, affixing metal paper-corners and ‘rawl-plugs’ to the strings, on the playing side of the bridge, or plastic foam-cones between the strings behind the bridge. In the process, he unintentionally evokes the early history of string instruments, hearkening back to La Battalia (1673) by H. I. F. Biber, who ‘prepares’ the bass instruments with parchment between the strings to produce a shawm-like buzzing, as well as providing an early example of snap-plucking, or what is now called the ‘Bartók pizzicato’.”
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