Chorale for String Quartet (2023)

Composer Note:

When this piece first opens it may seem unusual that it has the title Chorale. But gradually chorales emerge from these whirling maelstroms of heightened anxiety, like mists emanating from storm patterns. The piece unfolds almost in breaths which move from a position of heightened tension (in the upper chest) to a deeper oscillation in the diaphragm. Yet even as the chorale slowly evolves there is a sense of yearning. We can wish the world to be a certain way, but we are also affected by our path through life. Some of these harmonies are taken from a Bach chorale with the text “your word was for a long time obscured”.

—Donnacha Dennehy