In ancient stories, silver is a material with mystical powers. A silver bullet would stop any monster, and in alchemy it refers to the moon, purity or a clear conscience. But the the material also represents a 25th anniversary—for example from De Pont Museum, that commissioned me to compose a work for that festive occasion.
Although Silver consists of three separate parts, these are in a way connected. In the first part, the string quartet sounds like a stringed percussion ensemble, in which melody and rhythm bounce between the instruments in a constant canon.
The second part uses the same rhythm, but a lot slower. It is a chaconne, with a simple falling melody in the second half.
In the third part only the cello descents, as a reminder of the previous movement. The other instruments play a lot faster. They rise up and spread their silver radience in fast triads. In a bright counterpart of the darker first movement, the cello eventually joins the others and the whole quartet sings itself to the end.