Phobias

Listen to the work here!
 
Phobias is my String Quartet no. 1 in G Minor. Each of the four movements of this string quartet is inspired by common fears that many people express, both in the real world and often played up for either drama and comedy in movies and television. The movements are:
I. Thunder (The fear of thunder is also known as astraphobia). This music moves through several contrapuntal sections, with a crackling motif always present, often in the cello part. The musical material moves forward with an electric energy.
II. Blood (The fear of blood is also known as hemophobia). This movement is a slow and lyrical lamentation, with chords that frequently make use of both the major and minor third of a given key center, highlighting the dual nature of blood as a requirement of life and a sign of death.
III. Clowns (The fear of clowns is also known as coulrophobia). This movement is a theme and variations with an energetic and bouncy triple-meter melody, opening with a recurring figure designed to sound like the honking of a clown’s nose. Included at the end is an ironic quotation of Fucik’s Entry of the Gladiators.
IV. Flying (The fear of clowns is also known as aviophobia). The music of this movement is soaring and always in motion, with its own moto perpetuo energy. Several interludes in this movement also fragment and layer motivic quotations from previous movements, such as in this movement’s introduction.