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Missouri Breaks

Stuart Weber composer, guitar

Benda Quartet

Release Date: August 2, 2024
Catalog #: RR8108
Format: Digital
21st Century
Chamber
Guitar
String Quartet

MISSOURI BREAKS from composer and guitarist Stuart Weber is a musical meditation on the tension between natural history and modernity. In collaboration with the Benda Quartet, Weber’s work is largely set in the untamed American West. Night Scribe considers the periodic appearance of Halley’s Comet and wonders where humanity might find itself when the comet next appears in the year 2062. Missouri Breaks takes its musical cues from the Missouri River as it flows through north-central Montana; the tempo is set by the river’s current, the shimmering sunlight reflecting off the water inspires Weber’s guitar technique. Weber is deeply familiar with his subject matter, as he credits his upbringing in the Northern Rocky Mountains for giving him the time and space to develop as an artist.

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Performance Videos

Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Missouri Breaks Stuart Weber Stuart Weber, guitar; Benda Quartet | Jakub Černohorský, Ondřej Pustějovský – violin; Petr Benda, viola; Tomáš Svozil, violoncello 4:25
02 Night Scribe Stuart Weber Stuart Weber, guitar; Benda Quartet | Jakub Černohorský, Ondřej Pustějovský – violin; Petr Benda, viola; Tomáš Svozil, violoncello 7:17

Recorded October 27, 2023 at Church of St. Wenceslas in Opava, Czech Republic
Session Producer Jan Košulič
Session Engineer Aleš Dvořák
Assistant Engineer Adam Janků

Editing Jan Košulič
Additional Editing & Mixing Lucas Paquette
Mastering Melanie Montgomery

Executive Producer Bob Lord

A&R Director Brandon MacNeil

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette
Production Manager Martina Watzková
Production Assistant Adam Lysák

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Aidan Curran
Digital Marketing Manager Brett Iannucci

Artist Information

Stuart Weber

Composer, Guitarist

Stuart Weber's passion for the guitar was ignited early on when at age 12 when a cousin loaned him a flood-ravaged folk guitar. Undaunted by its poor condition, Weber began a ravenous period of self-study, which carried him through his teenage years and beyond.

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Benda Quartet

Ensemble

Since the Benda Quartet began performing in 2012 they have achieved a wide variety of musical successes and established themselves among highly respected Czech ensembles. Their first significant landmark was the concert debut they performed at the 60th Jubilee of the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra in Ostrava in April 2014. The concert was recorded by Czech Radio and garnered a huge audience acclaim. Since then has the collaboration with the studio of Czech Radio continued on regular basis and resulted in a number of publicly appreciated recordings. The Benda Quartet have worked intensively together with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra and artist management agency Janáčkův Máj on numerous chamber music and educational projects.

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Notes

Flowing East through north-central Montana is a section of the Missouri River known locally as the Breaks. This 150-mile section of the river was named a National Wild and Scenic River in 1976.

The opening tambora technique I employ is intended as a gesture of recognition to the people who have walked the banks of these waterways for thousands of years. Musically speaking, the river sets the tempo, but the notation is mostly inspired by sunlight glancing off the stirring, silty water. The river slows as it glides between the white sandstone cliffs, against which the echoes become a game a Raven can play with.

– Stuart Weber

Halley’s Comet visits the Earth once every 76 years. Its last visit in 1986 inspired me to consider our relationship with this steady, orderly guest, both from our perspective and the comets.

At the time of its last visit, we busied ourselves with our sped-up modern lifestyles, learning about the comet mainly from headlines. While it didn’t happen to be in a particularly visible orbit that year, we would occasionally stop and stare into the section of the night sky we believed it to be in. Assuming this hurling mountain of ice took notice of Earth, I wonder what it made of us; undoubtedly surprised at the changes since its last visit in 1910, and maybe a little unsure about what to expect in 2062. Time will tell.

In the Rocky Mountains, far from city lights, the night’s brilliant display of stars can reach from one horizon to the other. To help represent that huge span, and space itself, I have expanded the guitar’s range by altering its tuning to C, G, D, G, B, E.

– Stuart Weber

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Stuart Weber and Benda Quartet at session

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Recording team at Church of St. Wenceslas in Opava

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Weber and Benda Quartet performing