String Quartet No. 1: Of Episodic Nature

Primary version — string quartet

2009 · 8 minutes · 4 players

2 violins, viola, cello.

Movements — string quartet

Slow Burn — additional arrangement

2026 · 8 minutes · 4 players

Flute doubling piccolo, clarinet doubling bass clarinet, violin, cello.

Composed for HUB New Music and ICEBERG New Music. Premiered by HUB New Music at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, June 6, 2026.

Listen

String quartet recording

Harry Stafylakis · String Quartet No. 1, "Of Episodic Nature" (2009)

Slow Burn arrangement

Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis · Slow Burn (2026) for 4 players

Scores & Performance Materials

View perusal score — string quartet

Contact for score and parts — Slow Burn arrangement

Program note — string quartet

"In a war situation or where violence and injustice are prevalent, poetry is called upon to be something more than a thing of beauty." —Seamus Heaney

The themes of the piece are memory and war – particularly, the fragmentary (or episodic) nature of these two loaded concepts. The concept arose while researching another chamber work based on Cretan folk dances. One of these, the "syrto", represents the Cretan freedom fighter’s calm philosophical contemplation before entering battle.

Of Episodic Nature begins at this moment of calmness and proceeds through a series of memories that incite nostalgia – a blend of distant happiness and sadness. By the end of the first episode, the mind rushes back to the present, finding ourselves in the midst of an ongoing battle. The second episode expresses the violence and confusion of war. There is a general collapse at the end of the section, and the third begins with a depiction of the smouldering remains, the calm aftermath of a battle. There is a sense of something rising from the ashes, slow and wounded. The ambiguity of the ending (superimposed ‘tonic’ and ‘dominant’ harmonies) suggests that there is no possible victor in the reality of war.

Commission and premiere — string quartet

Premiered July 28, 2009 by the EAMA resident quartet at Salle Cortot, Paris. Composed for the European American Musical Alliance.

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