Instrumentation
strings (min. 4.4.2.2.1) / 2 classical guitars
Two nylon-string guitars in drop-D tuning, with string orchestra: violins I and II, violas, cellos and double basses. Minimum strings: 4.4.2.2.1 (13 string players), plus the two guitar soloists.
Amplification and seating
Both guitars should be individually amplified in live performance and mixed from the hall for balance with the strings. The score describes either the house system or acoustic guitar amplifiers near the performers.
The score specifies antiphonal violins with the bass centrally placed, particularly for recording; this placement is recommended in concert when practical.
Listen / Watch
Recorded by CC Duo and collectif9 on Re/String (2025, Leaf Music).
Album recording
Scores & Performance Materials
Published score and rental information ↗︎
Program Note
To wake and find the world still burning
“We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.” ―Tennessee Williams, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore
Composing a major substantial work for guitar & strings – such as what is in essence a two-guitar concerto – carries special meaning (and baggage) for me. As a metal guitarist by training and temperament, I am inevitably inclined to try to write the most powerful, virtuosic, metal piece I can.
It so happens that modern electric guitar language has been strongly influenced by the string music of Antonio Vivaldi. Guitar pioneers such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Romeo, and Uli Jon Roth grew up on a classical music diet before becoming shred guitar icons. In Vivaldi's more virtuosic string music, such as the fast movements of the Winter and Summer concerti from the Four Seasons, the music's propulsive, motoric, hard-edged style bears a strong resemblance to some subgenres of contemporary metal.
To wake and find the world still burning takes the stark, energetic, moto perpetuo atmosphere of these most metal of baroque masterworks as its starting point, and refilters it through a contemporary metal sensibility, enhancing the hardness and aggression in any way possible.
This piece was composed a year into the pandemic. The title is born of my refracted memories of the early days of the global cataclysm, living in Manhattan and watching in real time as New York City quickly transformed into a scene from a dystopian sci-fi/horror film.
My deepest thanks to Adam Cicchillitti and Steve Cowan for making this project happen. It's a special thing as a composer to get to work with like-minded musicians, and over time to develop together a new, shared musical language.
—HS | www.hstafylakis.com
Commission and premiere
Commissioned by the Cowan-Cicchillitti Duo and Thirteen Strings with support from the Canada Council for the Arts. Premiered March 19, 2022 by the Cicchillitti-Cowan Duo and Thirteen Strings, Kevin Mallon conducting.
Press
“Audience members were pulled into an almost dreamlike trance that was mixed in with mystery and suspense.”