- Artists:
- Paul Griffiths,
- JACK Quartet
Samuel Beckett, Trevor Bača: Stirrings Still
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Release date: September 4, 2026
Stirrings Still was Samuel Beckett’s last message in prose, completed in 1987, and first published the following year. More monologue than story, it comes from a narrator on the edge between life and what lies beyond, which might be a vast wheatfield seen in black-and-white, or might be a swirl of stumbling memories.Beckett cherished music, in particular the songs and string quartets of Franz Schubert. His writing is musical, in its meticulous phrasing, its use of repetition, and often its form. Stirrings Still is an example: a composition of interweavings and developments.
The music, created for this release by composer Trevor Bača, is no accompaniment but rather a parallel stream, heard in alternation with the words, reflecting and contemplating what they have to say. Imagined for the musicianship of the JACK Quartet, it is a stream into which the listener is drawn from time to time, not away from the words but more deeply into them, through another medium.
Stirrings Still was recorded in 2023 and 2024 at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano, and produced by Manfred Eicher, who has long been fascinated by the inherent musicality of Samuel Beckett’s writing.
Paul Griffiths Narrator
JACK Quartet
Christopher Otto Violin
Austin Wulliman Violin
John Pickford Richards Viola
Jay Campbell Violoncello
Tracklisting:
1. Stirrings Still I
2. Stirrings Still II
3. Stirrings Still III
4. Stirrings Still IV
5. Stirrings Still V
6. Stirrings Still VI
7. Stirrings Still VII
8. Stirrings Still VIII
9. Stirrings Still IX
10. Stirrings Still X
11. Stirrings Still XI
12. Stirrings Still XII
13. Stirrings Still XIII
14. Stirrings Still XIV
15. Stirrings Still XV
16. Stirrings Still XVI
17. Stirrings Still XVII
Stirrings Still XVIII