Tell es-Sakan
Excerpts from the upcoming performance of Tell es-Sakan, a protest, pacifist piece for String Quartet and Percussion that will be premiered in San Francisco on March 15, 2025 by the Friction Quartet, Haruka Fujii and Anne Szabla. The piece is in nine movements, with a very short Prelude (intro) and Coda (outro). Excerpts are played by NotePerformer AI. Get tickets in advance here.
Tell es-Sakan
Prelude
Dance of Courtship
Omen 1
I Recognize You
Omen 2
Vows
Omen 3 – Delirium
Intermission
Small Quarrels, Interrupted
Lament for Gaza
Darkness Ascends
Coda
After.a brief introduction, the piece is divided into scenes, beginning, with Dance of Courtship (the young couple meets), Omen I (the war machine announces itself), I Recognize You (the couple falls in love), Omen II (the war machine displays its weird inhuman self), Vows (a wedding scene), Omen III (delirium, a final warning: war is coming). After an intermission, the tale comes to its conclusion with the last three scenes: Small Quarrels finds the couple in the middle of domesticity, interrupted by the arrival of the war machine; Laments for Gaza is a cry of loss; and Darkness Ascends, a ferocious victory lap by the war machine. The short Coda quietly closes, with a little hope for peace.
The young couple scenes are for string quartet. The war machine scenes are for string quartet and percussion.