writing_shadows

The Shine Quintet - by Dr Janos Caligari

Out of silence there rises a plaintive melody, the first of the quintet’s principle themes. The strains of a half-forgotten childhood song are played soft on a ten-string baroque guitar. The themes which develop are sweet and almost merry, but two courses of the guitar are tuned to a minor key, introducing a melancholy undertone.

A second, electric guitar plays, bringing in a second melody, a chilling andante theme in D-minor – the saddest of all the keys – which rises around the acoustic melody. This minor theme, with a sombre, funereal sound, threatens to overwhelm the major, but truly masks only the minor courses, leaving the half-muffled themes sounding brighter in contrast.

A cello picks up the minor theme, its sinister, sonorous notes casting a shadow over the piece. A harp takes over the childhood theme, its bright, trilling notes ever-present and rising periodically to bring momentary relief from the darkness. The guitars begin to play variations of the two themes, competing and contrasting, one first eclipsing the other and then eclipsed in turn.

While the major theme is dominant, a violin takes up the minor, which soars into the ascendant. The violin then switches to the major theme and the balance reverses again. Throughout the quintet, the violin moves back and forth, controlling the balance of light and dark. As the harp’s babble emerges from the background, the music speaks of dappled sunlight shining through summer leaves, while the rising minor suggests the falling sun at the dimming of the day.

The violin’s melody is broken by a strident chord. More and more of these discordant notes are drawn from the violin, until at last its part falls away, followed by the cello and the harp. The two guitars play on in their never-ending cycle of dominance and finally fade out, in perfect balance at the exit, the struggle between light and dark unresolved.