String Quartet No. 2 (« Waves »)

R. Murray Schafer: String Quartet No. 2 (« Waves »)

(Please note that this work begins very softly, thus you may not hear anything for the first few seconds, depending on your playback settings.)

“In the course of the World Soundscape Project we recorded and analyzed ocean waves on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada. The recurrent rhythm of the waves is always asymmetrical but we have noted that the duration from crest to crest is frequently between six and eleven seconds, or of shorter duration than this. It is this wave motion that gives the quartet its rhythm and structure.”
R. Murray Schafer