Duration: ca. 20 minutes
1. The war in heaven
2. Aria for a lost beauty
3. Fire and magic
My piece has three movements, and the piece lasts around 20 minutes. It has something of a psychological arc. The first movement is titled, The war in heaven, and alternates between a volatile fast musical language and a music which is slower, more pained. Their materials come together in dialogue throughout the movement. Its core in a way centers around an existential psychological battle.
The second movement, Aria for a lost beauty, takes place in a kind of spiritual aftermath of the first- remembering a time of beauty before the crisis, but with a great sense of nostalgia. There are extended passages in this movement with just the string quartet alone, though the clarinet is still very integral to the ‘voice’ of the aria.
The third movement, Fire and magic, moves on from this opening two movement grouping but has in it a sense of running- maybe away from, maybe toward something which is not entirely known.
The quintet was written for the Ariel Quartet with Alex Fiterstein on clarinet for the Manchester Music Festival, and lasts about 20 minutes.
—Christopher Theofanidis
Biography