for string quartet

Ross Edwards

I: Sereno

II: Animato

The generic title Enyato is extracted from Edwards' Maninya text, an arbitrary nonsense poem dating from 1981 which has had a formative influence on much of his instrumental and vocal music. Through their musical associations the 'words' maninya and enyato have acquired the meanings dance/chant and dualism respectively.

An ostensibly straightforward piece, Enyato I presents an immediately attractive surface to the listener. The first movement is like a chorale, cast in mediaeval European modality tempered by South East Asian inflections; the second, a joyful dance whose ethos is distinctively antipodean and specifically aligned with the Sydney School in its subtle interfusion of pentatonic modes and sparkling cross rhythms.