Habanera of the Red-Haired Girl from "The Village on Stilts" (2012)
Instrumentation: Violin and Piano (arranged from the string quartet by the composer) Duration: 4 Minutes Additional Requirements: Standard mutes, scordatura
The Village on Stilts was written for the Kadath Quartet in the spring and summer of 2012. The work was inspired by the transcript of a dream in which a wooden village built high above a endless abyss is destroyed by an invisible terror from the abyss. In the first movement, the townspeople are discribed as sinister and greedy, yet joyful. The town is drab and gaudy with shades of orange and brown contrasting the incessant black of the abyss. The only color comes from the hair of a mysterious red-haired girl who appears for only seconds, as if a warning of violence to come. The second movement details the slow and painful destruction of the village as it crumbles and falls into the abyss below as an unnameable monster rises up. The scene suddenly shifts in the third movement to a cliff overlooking the abyss where the dreamer sits, calm and peaceful staring down at a strange red and blue whirlpool in the abyss below.
The Habanera was extracted for a 2012 recital by the composer