Invocation for String Quartet (2017)

Premiered July 17, 2017 by the Cassatt String Quartet at Vinalhaven School, Maine.

Program Note:

Invocation is a ritualistic summoning of a melody. The opening ceremonial theme is the conjurer, intent on bringing forth this new melody. However, the initial conjuring is thwarted by a sudden thrust into unpredictable, fragmented music. What follows is fraught with turbulent twists and turns, threaded in and around the opening material in various guises.

These streams of motivic fragments, thematic transformations, and triadic ostinati lead to a climactic restatement of the opening summons, igniting a state of crisis and bringing the piece to the edge of collapse. But the summoned theme finally and gracefully emerges from the maelstrom—a simple, luminous aria.