Job's Silence

A movement from the trio Silences, for clarinet, viola and piano, commissioned by the Musica Nova Ensemble; it is the first movement of that work. In its original form this movement is scored for viola and piano alone. It evokes very hard feelings, akin to those of Job in the Bible during the time when every disaster fell upon him, and it underlines how words become superfluous in the hardest periods of our lives — in the face of the worst horrors, silence is all that remains. It opens with a line of heavy chords and a very restrained, weighty melody; as the movement unfolds the melody erupts more and more, until it turns into a Jewish recitative prayer. It has been performed many times on different instruments, with versions for violin, viola and cello.

Commissioned by Musica Nova Ensemble (as part of 'Silences').

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