First performance: Andrew Liddell-quartet, King Charles’ Court 2024

Program note:

This piece is, as the title suggests, a rondo where
each section is characterized by rhythm rather than melody and harmony. When I first started working on the piece I quickly realized that I would still have to incorporate these elements somehow in order to create a piece that still satisfied my musical aesthetic.

However, the driving force behind the piece is still the rhythm: the dotted-and-triplet figure that makes up the A section, the 2:3 that dominates B, and the 1:2:3:4:5 that makes up C. These rhythms have subsequently been developed and treated like themes in a traditional rondo: a musical homage to an older form, reinterpreted.

The musical framework is a rather strict sonata-rondo and its inception and planning was a highly conceptual exercise, where the
hardest task eventually became turning an almost obnoxiously intellectualized rhythmic scheme into an actual piece of music: something you would want to listen to. I'm not saying this
because it necessarily adds anything to the music; it is purely because I spent too much time planning each detail not to
require the egotistical satisfaction of appearing very clever indeed.

Oskar Österling, 15/12-2022