Matthew Lam - Invocation for string quartet (2021/23)

Matthew Lam - Invocation (2021/2023) for string quartet
Performed by Mivos Quartet
Premiered at Hong Kong Composers Guild Music Salon II Online Concert
Program notes:
In ancient cultures, there were often rituals that are totally unthinkable and unimaginable nowadays, to appease Gods and deities. Child sacrifice is probably one of the most well-known rituals. Many ancient or pre-modern cultures in the Americas, Near East, Africa and even pre-modern Europe are found to perform such rituals.
Invocation plays with multiple textures and a gradual shift of timbre and has a single motif connecting the whole piece. In different sections, I imagine different scenes of the rituals in my mind, for instance casting a spell, dancing, praying, sacrificing, burning the child, etc., and visualise them as music.
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