if each day falls inside each night (after Neruda)

c.11 min

May 11, 2025
Philadelphia, PA
Erinys Quartet:
Elizabeth Stewart & Joosep Reimaa, violins
Marija Räisänen, viola
Stergios Theodoridis, cello

Commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society Miles Cohen, Artistic Director

string quartet

if each day falls inside each night was inspired by both a poem and a piece of art. Both resonated with me because each, in its own way, explores the possibility of retrieving, or reaching for, points of light from a place of darkness. The poem, after which the quartet is named, is by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Neruda writes about a well, fashioned by the descent of the day inside the embrace of the night. He urges us to sit on the edge of this well of darkness where clarity is imprisoned, to fish for fallen light, patiently. Mia Bosna created evocative artwork in 2020 entitled “Reaching Through”. As I was writing this piece, I felt a deep, almost aching compassion for humanity and this world– and always the possibility of light. The work unfolds in one movement. A simple four-note theme is heard in variation, each time surrounded by space and dissolving into string harmonics, which for me represented points of light. In the coda another variation appears and descends, like a final reaching inside the well, as if to pull out a new place of dreaming and of what could be.

I extend my gratitude to PCMS and to Diane and Lawrence Blum for this commission. It is an honor to be included in their Chamber Music for All (CMFA) project which seeks to broaden the audience for contemporary chamber music. I extend my appreciation to my colleague Alex Shapiro for the gift of time and space to compose much of this work at her studio on San Juan Island. A special thank you to Mia Bosna for providing artistic inspiration and kind permission to reprint her image.

— Andrea Clearfield