Three Goat Blues
For string quartet (2015)
For an alternate version for flute, violin, viola and cello visit here.
Length: 14 minutes*
Commissioned by Apollo Chamber Players, underwritten by a grant from the Houston Arts Alliance
This performance:
Apollo Chamber Players from their 2017 album Ancestral Voices
Matthew J. Detrick, violin
Anabel Ramirez Detrick, Violin
Whitney Bullock, viola
Matthew Dudzik, cello
* Short Goat Bluess - a stand-alone 4-minute version of the last movement.
About the piece
“Chad Gadya” (“one little goat” in Aramaic) is a popular prayer from the Jewish holiday of Passover. While the holiday celebrates the biblical journey of the Israelites from slavery to freedom, “Chad Gadya” tells the story of one little goat that, right at the beginning of the prayer, is eaten by a cat. This tragic event begins a horrific fable about the power of nature, in which each being is killed by one larger than itself. Following the 20th-century French composer Darius Milhaud, who wove Provençal Jewish prayers into his music, I chose to use an old Provençal tune of “Chad Gadya” as a musical source for my piece.
I decided, however, that the poor animal deserves a second chance. Instead of one goat, my piece Three Goat Blues piece portrays three (or possibly three aspects of the same goat). The first one is an oppressed, captive goat who sings the blues through the low-ranged cello. The viola represents a second goat that finds its way out of captivity and frolics here and there, but unfortunately its memories of oppression do not allow it to find peace. Only the third goat, featured by the violin, reaches true salvation. In a free adaptation of the original Provençal melody, the goat celebrates its freedom by dancing among the hills using awkward meters (since I can’t really imagine a goat dancing in 4/4 time). The piece was commissioned by Apollo Chamber Players for their 20x2020 project, underwritten by a grant from the Houston Arts Alliance, and was written for their Oppression to Expression season program "Rhapsody Nouveau," connecting works influenced by Provençal Jewish and African-American traditions. In 2018 the piece won the New York Composers Circle’s John Eaton Memorial Composition Competition, and in 2024 it was chosen by the audience as the winner of Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle Music Madness.
Selected Performances:
• Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston (TX): Apollo Chamber Players
• Church of the Transfiguration (New York, NY): Klang String Quartet
• Rice University (Houston, TX): Apollo Chamber Players
• Columbus Theatre (Providence, RI): Verdant Vibes
• Harris County Public Library “Live in Studio” concert: Apollo Chamber Players
• DiMenna Center for Classical Music (New York, NY): Shattered Glass
• Outside the Box festival, Southern Illinois University (IL): Apollo Chamber Players
• Houston Holocaust Museum (TX): Apollo Chamber Players
• UC San Diego Park & Market (CA, USA): Camarada Ensemble, version for flute quartet
• California Festival (CA, USA): Camarada Ensemble, version for flute quartet
• West University Place Recreation Center (TX, USA): Apollo Chamber Players
