Mystic Chords of Memory

ENS.2017.4 | 35′
Violin, Viola, Cello; Oboe, Violin, Viola, Cello; Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello

String Trio

Oboe Quartet

Piano Quartet


“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Mystic Chords of Memory is a trilogy of instrumental works relating in some way to the American Civil War. In my String Trio, Oboe Quartet, and Piano Quartet, fundamentally abstract music does battle with extravagantly unrelated extramusical narratives.