New Music USA Online Library

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.