Menstrual Notation is my second string quartet engaging with cyclical time in living organisms (the first explored tree phenophases). This piece is a sonic interpretation of my (former) menstrual cycle in an attempt at a deeper understanding and expression of the organic basis of temporal perception. In 2018 I maintained a daily ritual of intricately documenting physical and emotional facets of my hormonal cycle in relation to the phases of the moon. Menstrual Notation correlates to the data I recorded during one 26-day menstrual cycle in October 2018. The cello line, a representation of the moon, continually loops, develops, and transitions between 8 stages of the monthly lunar cycle, while the violist plays the main melodic line, linked phrases which correspond to my cycle’s corporeal indicators. The 1st and 2nd violin players interpret energetic qualities (productivity/sociality and mood/energy, respectively), composing phrases within a limited pallet of pitches in real time.

The practices I developed to compose this quartet helped me to find a more positive relationship with life’s continual processes of transformation. However, after decades of chronic pain and dysphoria associated with my menstrual cycle, I underwent surgery to remove my uterus this past fall. While I was recovering, J Holzen, a stranger at the time, reached out to me to ask to include Menstrual Notation in this program. It has felt like a cosmic gift to revisit and revise this material now. I give thanks to the herbalist Flora Pacha whose work originally inspired my menstrual charting practice; to Mivos Quartet for their expansive early performance of a draft of this piece in 2018; to David Ertel, for his generous contribution of compositional and technical ideas for the new cello line; and to J Holzen, for their creative support, enthusiasm, and vision in curating and performing this program. I am deeply grateful to my family and friends who gave me constant emotional and material care during surgery recovery.

– Leslie Allison

Dylan Feldpausch and Zach Buehler, violin • Sophie McMillan-Myers, viola • J Holzen, cello