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Brina Jež Brezavšček completed a degree in composition in 1981 at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana under Uroš Krek and studied Musicology in the University of Ljubljana. She has taken part in master classes and courses for piano in Hungary, for composition in Grožnjan, Croatia and in Darmstadt, and for electro-acoustic music in Belgrade and Graz. In 1994 she was guest composer in electroacoustic studios CIRM, Nice and GRM, Paris. Her compositions have been performed extensively in many venues in Slovenia and in Croatia, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria and the United States.  In 2005 her first portrait CD Towards a New Dimension was released by Association of Slovene Composers   with chosen chamber compositions, played by Slovene and internationally renowned performers, as violoncellist Rohan de Saram and pianist Marianne Schroeder. Ten years later her second portrayal CD A Piece of Blue only with a palette of chamber works for different instrumental combinations was issued by ZKP, Discography Unit of RTV Slovenia. For performances of her music she got many praising  reviews in magazines and newspapers as:  Delo, Dnevnik, Večer, The Musical Times, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Frankfurte Allgemeine Zeitung, Darmstädter Echo, Republika, The Washington Post, nmz  – neue musikzeitung,  Flöte aktuell etc. She is assistant Professor at the Faculty of Education in the University of Ljubljana. In the forefront of contemporary music in Slovenia for many years, she was the founder in 1991, and until 2000 the president of the ‘MUZINA’ Society for Contemporary Music. Later she led similar associatios Sirius A B. www.brina.jez.brezavscek.net/

CHAIN (1991) for string quartet

I wrote the string quartet Chain at the beginning of the nineties. In this piece I wanted to link different techniques available to a composer into a chain. At the same time I have followed a feeling for the musical flow with all tensions and releases.

In compositional procedure chain is reflected as a connection of parts, which are different, but also related with each other and are linked together.

I meant that in this composition according to my previous works I used freedom of choice in given compositional manners most radically: e.g. simplified use of flowing rhythms, emotional »romantic« expressiveness, and parts in polyphonic deliberation. These procedures are followed by a part with alloy of minimal music. In second movement I was searching expressiveness in static clusters and interesting sound in fifths performed con legno battuto; after a simple unison in different instrumental doublings appears a slow, choral posted four voice part, which leads to the concluding solo passages in upward direction.

The Composition is dedicated to the in the 1990s new established group, string quartet Muzina. CHAIN was first performed in January 1992 at the initial concert of the association also named Muzina, which I initiated and ran until 1999 and was active until 2003.