Strings & Shadows  (1993)

In this piece the strings of the harp acts like gates that open up and lets out a variety of other instrumental, quasi-instrumental and (sometimes) vocal sounds that flows in a constant stream of transformations. These timbre "shadows" are complemented with mirroring of the harp using a variety of synthesised string sounds. There is however also another kind of musical shadow present. A short melodic fragment from Stohart´s film score of a Greta Garbo film (Queen Christina) can be heard in a slightly distorted mirror image of the harp in the middle section of the piece. In fact the whole melodic development of the harp part has been to a large extent derived from this melodic theme. The poetic vision of the piece is an image of an old dying actress, drawn into a last flowing sequence of dance through the shadows of her past, while death slowly appears as her partner in the last Pas-de-deux.

Strings & Shadows was composed as a commission from NOMUS for Sofia Claro 1993. It received the second prize in the 1994 Ars Electronica.