Ode to Theia
Year: 2020
Instrumentation: string quartet
Duration: 22 minutes
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Program Notes
In desperate need of light, literal and figurative, I thought about the deities of light while writing this quartet. There are many – various Aztec gods of the stars, the Egyptian Nefertem, the Hindu Aruna and Ushas, the Germanic Freyr and Baldr – but the one that most appealed to me as I wrote down notes was Theia, the Greek Titaness of sight and the shining light of the clear blue sky, also called Euryphaessa, or “wide-shining”. An ode to Theia – may she bring light to a world that grows darker by the day.
The music started slowly and tentatively, as I wasn’t sure it was going anywhere. It is an experiment – writing in a different language than usual – and with no organizing principle either – its direction became subject to the whim of the muse of the moment – perhaps, Theia.
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