Caroline Shaw’s "Microfictions, Volume 1" (complete performance)

August 24, 2022 premiere of ‪@carolineadelaideshaw‬ "Microfictions, Volume 1" from The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center. Performed by ‪@themiroquartet‬ for ‪@theconradprebys‬.

I. Under the hot sun, the road signs melted until they were the color of an unrhymed
couplet, pointing to cadences left or north.

II. The photographs smeared into focus one by one, like organ pipes being tuned. Some of
edges and corners were torn, but the tune was still visible.

III. The summer storm laughed and lilted and shouted until it found a shady spot, beneath an
oak's dappled counterpoint.

III & 1/2. Between the third and fourth movements, the second violinist stood up and said
hello to the audience. Everyone was grateful to know which movement they were on.

IV. The complete taxonomy of verse forms is buried in a cardboard box beneath a chord that fell
from grace.

V. Waking up on the early side that Tuesday, Miró noticed a bird repeating its solitary
caption. The clouds nodded to the tempo of an undiscovered Mendelssohn song.

VI. The mountains folded in among themselves, as the day grew on. Their songs could only
be heard in heavy fragments, obliquely, from years and miles below.


Performed by the Miró Quartet (www.miroquartet.com)
Performed for the La Jolla Music Society (www.theconrad.org)
Filmed and edited by Tristan Cook (www.tristan-cook.com)