KAIROS for string quartet

καιρος (Kairos) is a greek word that means an undefined period of time in which something special happens, on the contrary χρονος (Chronos) is related to the logical and sequential time: it is the quality of time opposed to its quantity. KAIROS for string quartet was composed for the international conference Time Machine Factory 2012 organized by the Astronomical Observatory of Turin in collaboration with the Politecnico University that had as main subject the Time and the possibility, from the scientific point of view, to travel through it. In this context it was conceived this composition, a sequence of seven sections representing ‘specific moments’ the time of which is suspended and almost without a real direction; the parts are grouped in two categories, those ones named ‘Melos’ that develop the horizontal linear dimension through a ‘melodic tendency’ that however never becomes a real melody line and those named ‘Ensemble’ that develop the vertical harmonic dimension. In the ‘Ensemble’ I and III the rhythmical parameter is almost nullified while in the II is an element of utmost importance, worked up by means of polyrhytmical patterns; the ‘Melos’ moments, as said before, present a linear contour gradually elaborated heterophonically and that involves, starting with the solo violin I in Melos I, a growing number of instruments but without reaching the use of the quartet in its wholeness. The tonal horizon of the piece is fixed on a C# that passes through all the sections providing the axis around which the compositional structures rotate. The sequence of the moments is the following:

Melos I

Ensemble I

Melos II

Ensemble II

Melos III

Ensemble III

Melos IV