Magnitude

Magnitude by Andrea Casarrubios (b. 1988) was commissioned in 2021 by the Carr-Petrova Duo, and emerged from their Novel Voices Refugee Aid Project, during which the pair traveled across the world performing at refugee camps and engaging with residents in workshops. While in Jerusalem, they witnessed a performance by the “Daughters of Jerusalem,” an ensemble of Palestinian women who study at the Edward Said National Conservatory. The director of the conservatory, Suheil Khoury, described how these musicians are challenging the male-dominated tradition of music making, creating new music that is unique to the ensemble in form and style, and bearing witness to the members’ experiences. Magnitude pays homage to their effect and significance as artists; as Casarrubios writes of the work’s inspiration, “I couldn’t help but consider the magnitude—the tremendous impact they will continue to make, and how their courage in music can have such important repercussions in generations to come.” Throughout the work, the instruments seem to explore this type of influence; motivic fragments first imagined by the piano, for instance, blossom in the viola, becoming more expansive melodies. The accompaniment shifts throughout, shifting between gently syncopated chords to a resolute pedal tone to rippling sixteenth notes to grandiose arpeggios, yet the momentum never ceases. These disparate parts—the initial melody as well as various accompanimental figures—come together as the piece climaxes; musical materials are reinterpreted and recombined into something greater than the sum of their parts. After this profusion of sound, tranquility descends as the two instruments echo each other once more, their dialogue fading into the distance.