Prayer for the Innocents (string octet version)

In September 2004, terrorists overran a school in Beslan, Russia, and held its pupils and teachers hostage for a number of days, culminating in the murder of at least 150 pupils. Thereafter, the Russian Archbishop eulogized them in a prayer he called "Prayer for the Innocents." The eulogy, and its circumstances, affected me deeply, and prompted me to dedicate the middle movement of my second string quartet to the memory of the children.

In the summer of 2008, I was commissioned by the Keshet Eilon Music Center in Israel to compose a work for its master course. I took the opportunity to revisit this middle movement and created Prayer for the Innocents for two string quartets, allowing me to explore the spatial and textural possibilities of antiphonal string writing.

The piece consists of three sections, opening with a cadenza played by the first violins of one quartet. The cadenza is based on a simple repetitive gesture, suggesting a person praying. The heart of the piece lies in the second section, in which the ensemble plays the prayer itself. Here I wanted to blend Western and Eastern music traditions so that the prayer would reflect the deep connection between these cultures despite the current apparent antagonism between them. The style of the prayer when it is first played by one quartet is similar to that of instrumental music of the late Renaissance or the early Baroque. Immediately thereafter, the second quartet responds by repeating the same theme, but with the addition of Eastern elements and using a Middle Eastern scale typified by quarter tones. Both quartets then explore the depth of the prayer and of the pain it expresses, until it is impossible to identify which is praying in a Western style and which in an Eastern style. The third section presents a recapitulation of the elements of the opening cadenza, this time not by the first violins alone but in the form of an eight-part canon, suggesting a desert wind.

Related works:
   Prayer for the Innocents (string octet)
   Prayer for the Innocents (string orchestra)
   String Quartet No. 2 – Mirage