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PRÉLUDE

CHAMBER MUSIC | STRING QUARTET



Credits
Music composition - Francis St-Germain

Quatuor Cobalt
Violin - Guillaume Villeneuve & Diane Bayard
Viola - Benjamin Rota
Cello - François Leclerc

Prélude (2019) is a contemporary reimagining of German Romanticism, blending the ideals of Franz Schubert and E.T.A. Hoffmann with modern musical sensibilities. Inspired by Hoffmann’s tales—marked by fantastical realism, mises en abyme, and stark contrasts—the string quartet composed by Francis St-Germain reflects Romanticism’s deep tensions between nostalgia, contradiction, and emotional intensity.

Rooted in the Romantic fascination with the Middle Ages, Prélude revisits themes of  nature’s idealization, raw emotion, and asymmetry, weaving together melancholic melodies, microtonality, fragmented motets, and a distorted reimagining of Schubert’s Ave Maria. This fusion critiques our contemporary relationship with history, exploring how artistic currents—from New Complexity to Post-Minimalism—navigate the balance between intellectual rigor, emotional resonance, and performative expression.

By drawing from and reshaping the past, Prélude highlights the cyclical nature of creativity, suggesting that innovation is not linear but a continual reinterpretation of enduring archetypes.

Prélude was commissioned and premiered by Quatuor Cobalt on January 14, 2020, at Walter Hall, University of Toronto.


Duration: 8 minutes
Credits
Music composition - Francis St-Germain

Quatuor Cobalt
Violin - Guillaume Villeneuve & Diane Bayard
Viola - Benjamin Rota
Cello -  François Leclerc






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