You Know Me From Here (2012)
(for string quartet)

The composer revised this piece in 2018.

Composer note
You Know Me From Here was commissioned by Carol Cole, for the Kronos Quartet, in honor of her husband Tim's 75th birthday. When she asked me to write this piece I immediately imagined a twenty-minute musical journey homeward, a trek through chaos (I. Lift Your Fists) and loneliness (II. Everything That Rises Must Converge) to a place of security and companionship (III. You Know Me From Here). This is, at its core, music about loss, but in the most positive sense; it speaks of the loss of our old selves, the jumps into the unknown, the leaps of faith we all must make and the beautiful moments when we find solace in a person, in an idea, or in music itself. The music itself shifts constantly from earthy, gritty gestures to soaring, leaping melodies that rarely land where we expect.

Many thanks to Carol and Tim, the Kronos Quartet, Janet Cowperthwaite, Katy Tucker, and poet Farnoosh Fathi (for the title).

— Missy Mazzoli