Originally commissioned by the Talla Rouge Duo for two violas, this version for two violins was performed at Reed College by Emily Cole and Keiko Araki for the FearNoMusic Locally Sourced Sounds 4-hour reading marathon event!

“Hiraeth” is a Welsh word with no direct English equivalent. It describes a profound, almost aching longing, for a home that may never have existed, for a time that cannot be returned to, for something felt more in the soul than in memory. It is nostalgia braided with loss, and love tempered by absence.

In this work for two violins, that untranslatable emotion becomes a dialogue. The instruments weave in and out of one another’s phrases and intonation, sometimes in close harmony, sometimes pulling apart into lonely melodic lines. Moments of stillness hover like breath held too long, while sudden surges of motion suggest flashes of memory or fleeting recognition.

The music draws on the duality of hiraeth: beauty and sorrow, connection and distance. Each player becomes both voice and echo, their interplay creating a shifting tapestry of timbre and tension. While the piece offers no resolution, no “return” to the place longed for, it invites listeners to dwell in the space between yearning and acceptance, where the heart finds its own language for what is gone.