In the afternoon light
Iltapäivän valossa
for string quartet
Description
So often, intentionally or not, microtonal music brings connotations of cosmic events or quantum phenomena, either at the macroscopic or at the microscopic end of the scale. Through the extreme registers in the deep bass or shrill discant we are invited to fathom the unfathomable distances and temperatures of outer space, or, if that is somehow too much and we must stay on planet Earth, then we at least are asked to ponder the motion of tectonic plates as millions of years unfold in the blink of an eye.
As fascinated as I am with outer space and with microtonality and the harmonic series too, what I try to achieve with my music is right in between the micro and the macro: at the human scale.
The title of the piece was inspired from writer Georgi Gospodinov’s novel Time Shelter, where he writes that “the past settles into afternoons”, and later that “the real life of the world and humanity can be written in several afternoons, in the light of several afternoons, which are the afternoons of the world” (quoted from Georgi Gospodinov, Time Shelter, p. 50, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel, 2022). I resonate with the idea of afternoons being the best channel for memory, and like Gospodinov, I also think that time flows most slowly in the afternoon. Maybe this is what afternoons felt like in childhood during summer vacation, and since that happened long ago, the passed time gets transmutated into an interpretation of how memory functions. In other words, summer afternoons were warm and full of light, and long, and that’s why memories must feel the same way.
Harmony is my medium for navigating the hidden palaces of memory. The calculated paths of consonance and dissonance cannot be touched like a physical object, but they can be felt somewhere deep inside. The joys, expectations and disappointments, the questions are all there in the microtonal fabric, and that is why this piece flows at the human scale, slowly in the gentle, warm, middle register.
In the afternoon light is commissioned by and dedicated to Uusinta quartet.
Instrumentation Category
Chamber Works
PremiereUusinta quartet. Sebastian Dumitrescu's doctoral concert, 2.10.2026, Sibelius Academy concert hall, Helsinki
Commissioned by / Dedicated toCommissioned by and dedicated to Uusinta quartet
PDF for promotional useArchive number
MF36532
