This is actually an older piece, that was written three years ago. The pandemic had just begun, and the film projects I was working on got postponed. It comes in the somewhat rare form of an introduction with variations, and is in part a reflection of what I had learned about string-writing during all my orchestration and arrangement jobs on various film scores over the years. During that time, I was working out of a small room in the attic of the house we were living in. Facing the one small window of my room, stood a giant spruce tree. At the start of spring, a pair of magpies built a nest in that tree, laid their eggs and started guarding it very noisily against all other birds, so the chattering and chirping was always with me whenever I was working. A few weeks later it got particularly raucous outside my window, and when I looked, i could see a huge crow trying to get to the eggs. The magpies put up an incredible fight, and were eventually able to turn the crow away. Just one day later however, the crow would return, when one of the magpies was away looking for food, and the crow managed to overpower the other one and plundered the nest. When the crow finally left, the two magpies quietly sat there above the ruins of their nest, seeming very sad, and eventually flew away. I never saw them again. After finishing the piece, I had to wait another year with the recording, until I could finance it through a scholarship granted to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on musicians. It was an incredible experience, and really invaluable to me as a composer and musician. Then, immediately after the recording, I had to turn my focus back to other more urgent projects, and weeks turned into months and months into a year. Now, just a few weeks ago, the giant spruce tree outside my window was cut, and I am still sad about it. There will be no more magpies nesting in front of my window any time soon. Anyway, it finally gave me an incentive to publish the piece, I hope you enjoy listening.

Violin I: Karina Buschinger
Violin II: Christine Beimel
Viola: Federico Bresciante
Cello: Jan Michels

Recording Engineer: Ben Winkler
Camera: Anton Dann
Recorded at: Tresorfabrik Tonstudio