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"I wrote Tenebrae as a consequence of witnessing two contrasting realities in a short period of time in September 2000. I was in Israel at the start of the new wave of violence that is still continuing today, and a week later I took my son to the new planetarium in New York, where we could see the Earth as a beautiful blue dot in space. I wanted to write a piece that could be listened to from different perspectives. That is, if one chooses to listen to it "from afar", the music would probably offer a "beautiful" surface but, from a metaphorically closer distance, one could hear that, beneath that surface, the music is full of pain." [continued...] |
| CATEGORIES | Chamber [with voice]; Chamber [without voice] |
| INSTRUMENTATION | –Version I: Soprano, clarinet and string quartet
–Version II: String quartet |
| DURATION | 12'00" |
| WORLD PREMIERE | Dock Theater, Charleston, SC; June 1, 2002 (Version I) |
| WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMERS | Version I: Courtenay Budd, soprano; Todd Palmer, clarinet; St. Lawrence String Quartet
Version II: Kronos Quartet |
| COMMISSION | Commissioned by the Spoleto USA Music Festival
The string quartet version was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the family of Ann C. Levy in her honor and on the occasion of the 50th anniversary season of the Friends of Chamber Music, Denver. Additional funds were provided by Simon Collier. |
| RECORDING | Recorded by the Kronos Quartet; appears on Oceana [album details]
Recorded by the Borromeo String Quartet; appears on Borromeo String Quartet "Living Archive" [album details] |
| SCORE AVAILABILITY | Score available for sale. Parts available for sale. [more info] |
| TEXTS | Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet |
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