Obsessive Fantasy for String Quartet in three movements.

The first movment of my String Quartet

The second movement.

The third movement, by name 'La Catanese' after the Sicilian Town under the shadow of Aetna, and active volcano.

This is my string quartet, which I called 'Obsessive Fantasy'.

I chose this peculiar title because the process of composing it obsessed me somewhat.

I articulated it into three movements, which was and is a common practice amongst composers, following the historically crystalised Sonata form.

The first movement is a stylistic puzzle, introducing the preclassical period, leaping four centuries later into Minimalism, then sliding over Bartok, Romantic, Neoclassical, and ending in a summary of all these styles as a final conclusive musical puzzle.

The second movement is an adagio, typical of most adagios of the preclassical, classical and romantic periods.

It is solemn, melancholy, dramatic.

The third movement, 'La Catanese', is the crowning movement of my quartet.

I had taken as inspiration a sicilian city that thrives under the shadow and menace of an active volcano, a destructive and unpredictable force of nature that shaped the town's history, economy and destiny.

I wanted to acoustically depict an explosive volcanic eruption, which is evident from the very start of this movement. I then change the timing to render a tarantella in 6/8ths, traditional dance of the area. The tarantella rises and descends, as though it rose and descended the slopes of a high mountain. It then becomes lame, an irresolute 5/8ths where panic and drama return forcefully.

The piece ends, across a sort of dramatic tango, a solo viola cadenza that resembles a sad lament, for a history of Death and destruction, and a final tarantella followed by a furious descent of the string instruments, that may remind one of the sudden outpour of incandescent lava.

I often ask myself, why did I compose this? How did these ideas enter my mind?

I cannot but reply: 'I truly do not know'. There is no single reply. Associations of ideas, memories, considerations, emotions, experiences. And a dab of creative mystery that seems to visit my sleep and resound vividly in my ears and mind.

All this poured into musical notation. A score.

Aetna String Quartet performing.