Poiesis Quartet

"Many Many Cadences" is the title of a work by composer and installation artist Sky Macklay, and also the motto of this prize-winners' concert by the American Poiesis Quartet in the Laienrefektorium. As the smallest harmonic unit in the tonal framework of a composition, the cadence is also the pivot of every tonal development.

In Sergei Prokofiev's String Quartet No. 1, op. 50, it carries the formal and emotional structure of the piece - through the constant friction and resolution of harmonic tension. In Maurice Ravel's String Quartet, op. 35, it works instead as an organically and sonically refined link between musical ideas.

A commissioned work by Jeff Scott opens yet another angle: the ensemble, which won the Grand Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Banff, Canada in 2025, uses the cadence as a starting point for the search for (musical) identity.