Overpainted Bach

Overpainted Bach, Opus 14 no. 2, is the second movement of Overpainted Music and may also be performed independently. An amplified string quartet, positioned as a solo group within the orchestra, plays the Bach chorale Herzlich tut mich verlangen while the surrounding orchestra adds shifting layers of timbre, pointillistic attacks, spectral chords, quarter-tones and harmonics. These layers alternately obscure and reveal the chorale, translating Gerhard Richter’s process of overpainting into sound.