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About this Piece

The piece Knights of the strange is a piece of music poetry, where a few words highlight the speculative / poetic connections between dreams, reality, and reflection. The piece includes in it another piece: Knights of the strange (Duo). Duo is like an independent plant that comes from another climate inside the jungle of the tutti version. Both pieces are dedicated to my son Ko, as he leaves home for college. The title of the piece is taken from a book Ko created when he was four. The piece also includes some spoken phrases that are very mundane exchanges at home. The piece is also dedicated to ensemble PHACE and to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, for whom it was written.

It is a piece where there is a real braiding between groups of the instruments. It is a very close look at the smallest mechanisms of impulse and reaction and at how impulse and reaction, when faced with some random element, can take quite a surprising turn into an unexpected territory. The last spoken lines are taken from the book “knights of the strange.”

— Chaya Czernowin