* excerpt from "Il terzodecimo canto" (1999)
The New England String Ensemble Quartet, 
premiere performance in Hamlin Hall, Trinity College

    

    "Il terzodecimo canto" is a string quartet composed as a musical realization of, and also a musical commentary on, the 13th Canto from Dante's "Divine Comedy," the canto of the suicides. In this excerpt, the main character, Pier della Vigna, a statesman in the court of the emperor Frederick the Second, recounts the fate of the souls in this section of hell.