Within Her Arms

Within Her Arms is a composition for string orchestra by the British-born composer Anna Clyne.

"[1] Alex Ross of The New Yorker called the work "a fragile elegy for fifteen strings; intertwining voices of lament bring to mind English Renaissance masterpieces of Thomas Tallis and John Dowland, although the music occasionally breaks down into spells of static grief, with violins issuing broken cries over shuddering double-bass drones.

"[2] Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times similarly lauded that it "had the feel of wholesome traditional British string music enlivened by a new spirit.

Lawrence A. Johnson of the Chicago Classical Review particularly praised the piece, writing:Within Her Arms is a powerful work, a somber, deeply felt meditation on loss.

Crafted with real mastery for strings, Clyne's work never descends to the sentimental or lachrymose, the music working its way through desolation and painful stabbing violin accents to a sense of hard-won solace and peace.He added, "This is one of the English composer's most personal and finest efforts to date, and one could easily see this powerful elegy entering the regular string repertoire.