Crepitus & Cavitations (2026)

Crepitus & Cavitations for string quartet (2026) Program Note: Crepitus: "Grating, crackling or popping sounds and sensations experienced under the skin and joints." The term crepitus is derived from the Latin for "rattling" or "creaking." -Wiktionary "A grating or crackling sound or sensation (as that produced by the fractured ends of a bone moving against each other." -Merriam Webster Dictionary Cavitation: "Defining cavitation sounds in this way is intended to separate these sounds from sounds that also sound like a "pop", but may arise from structures rubbing over or past one another (e.g. a tendon snapping across a bony protuberance), or the tearing or ripping of tissues (e.g. an Achilles tendon or quadriceps tendon rupture).... Cavitation sounds result from a collapsing cavitation bubble, demonstrating that metacarpophalangeal joint cavitation sounds are consistent with mathematical modeling of an acoustic signature (dominant frequency and magnitude) of a collapsing bubble." -Brookbush, Brent. “Cavitations, Popping Joints, and Relationship with Joint Manipulation Outcomes.” Brookbush Institute, 29 Dec. 2023. This piece is an amplification through acoustic string instruments of psychoacoustic sounds: those audible only inside the listener's own body that we spend our whole lives ignoring, trying to not to hear. The ontological conundrum of sensory experience is performed vestigially in the instruments' and performers' bodies as they seek to make their interior experience audible, visible, emotionally readable. Jiwon Choi, violin 1 Joey Lau, violin 2 Aditi Prakash, viola Hyunji Kim, cello Maya Miro Johnson, conductor March 5th, 2026 Sprague Recital Hall, Yale University