Distillation of the Night (2007)
for 'cello, viola, piano, violin, clarinet
By Stratis Minakakis
Greek/active America
Greek/active America
In Aristophanes’ ‘The Birds,’ Night is described as one of the principle agents of creation. She laid and hatched the egg of Eros, who possesses the ability to allow different elements to mix, thus creating the generation of Gods and the Universe. Aristophanes’ recounting of this story serves as a metaphor for the form and content of ’ΝΥΚΤΟΣ ΔΙΥΛΙΣΗ’ (Distillation of the Night). The dense, explosive web of lines and surfaces at the beginning undergoes a process of continuing transformations that eventually deconstructs the piece to its very basic constituent elements. In contradistinction with traditional depictions of the nocturnal in music, the image of Night presented in this piece is one of primeval force and vibrant energy.
Other works by Stratis Minakakis:
“A gentleman brought music to his lady's window, who hated him,...and when he persisted, she threw stones at him. Whereupon a friend of his that was within his company, said to him; "What greater honour can you have to your music, than that stones come about you, as they did to Orpheus."”
--Francis Bacon