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Clarinet in Bb and string quartet.
Approx. 8 minutes.
Ius in Bello, Latin for "law in war," is the body of international humanitarian law — chiefly the Geneva Conventions — that limits the destructiveness of war: barring certain weapons, protecting civilians, restricting the scope of fighting. I wrote this piece in 2014 as a commentary on the situation then unfolding in Venezuela, where an increasingly authoritarian government met dissent with violence, and more broadly on a recurring pattern across Latin America, where the search for freedom from imperialist oppression has repeatedly devolved into internal conflict, foreclosing any real possibility of stability or peace. This piece holds two things at once: the horror inflicted by those who seek power over human lives, and the beauty of a culture whose depth is not always visible from a U.S. vantage point — one that finds real meaning in a slower life, in needing fewer material things, in strong networks of connection with other people and with the land, in trusting intuition and improvisation. The beauty of the imperfect, the unproduced, the raw, the natural. A call to find languages of solidarity toward fellow humans, and respect for human life.
Premiered by Ari Streisfeld, Adrianne Pope, John Pickford, Zan Berry, and Thiago Ancelmo at the New Music on the Point 2014 Festival. Recorded by the Tesla Quartet and clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein, released on Orchid Classics in 2019.
This download includes: Digital score (PDF): Ius in Bello - v1 clarinet quintet - Full Score.pdf
Clarinet in Bb and string quartet.
Approx. 8 minutes.
Ius in Bello, Latin for "law in war," is the body of international humanitarian law — chiefly the Geneva Conventions — that limits the destructiveness of war: barring certain weapons, protecting civilians, restricting the scope of fighting. I wrote this piece in 2014 as a commentary on the situation then unfolding in Venezuela, where an increasingly authoritarian government met dissent with violence, and more broadly on a recurring pattern across Latin America, where the search for freedom from imperialist oppression has repeatedly devolved into internal conflict, foreclosing any real possibility of stability or peace. This piece holds two things at once: the horror inflicted by those who seek power over human lives, and the beauty of a culture whose depth is not always visible from a U.S. vantage point — one that finds real meaning in a slower life, in needing fewer material things, in strong networks of connection with other people and with the land, in trusting intuition and improvisation. The beauty of the imperfect, the unproduced, the raw, the natural. A call to find languages of solidarity toward fellow humans, and respect for human life.
Premiered by Ari Streisfeld, Adrianne Pope, John Pickford, Zan Berry, and Thiago Ancelmo at the New Music on the Point 2014 Festival. Recorded by the Tesla Quartet and clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein, released on Orchid Classics in 2019.
This download includes: Digital score (PDF): Ius in Bello - v1 clarinet quintet - Full Score.pdf