Work
To midre nihte
for string quartet
About
To midre nihte for string quartet is a work inspired by the Old English poem, 'The Dream of the Rood', in which the speaker has a dream-vision in which the Cross, wound in light, appears to him before recounting its experience of the Crucifixion as the object to which the body of Christ is nailed. The poem intertwines images of visceral violence with a sense of holy awe. The quartet symbolises an angelic consort of viols, sounding a music that expands and contracts, shimmers and splinters, as if in a dream.