Beginning with a playful take on the traditions of the string quartet, with the spatial arrangement of its musicians and its simultaneity, Forte creates a concatenation of overlapping tones and images. Sometimes painting vivid visuals, sometimes cracking cultural jokes, sometimes celebrating the sheer force of sound that resounds in all language, these poems yet never quite perform in concert—instead they keep tuning up their instruments, fidgeting and fussing, sighing and shrugging, until they quietly, beautifully, exit the stage. Throughout the work, one is swept along by what turns out to be a surprisingly subtle, finely nuanced performance. 

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