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Score
A church made of glass : for three singers and three players / music by Elliott Gyger ; words by Peter Carey.
Library shelf no. 783.1354/GYG 1 [Available for loan]
Work Overview
The glass church which is a central image of Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda is described within the novel as an idea with a force of its own. This assessment is one the book's readers share with its characters; both groups are captivated by the combination of surreal beauty, mad impracticality and doomed fragility. In this work I have disentangled the church from its intricate role in the lives of the novel's human protagonists, choosing passages which focus on its own narrative arc - from conception, through the mechanics of construction and transportation, to completion, deterioration and annihilation. My musical setting mirrors the baroque contrivance of the church itself, using the model of an eighteenth-century cantata in highly compressed form: nine brief sections, with textures suggesting recitative, contrapuntal duet, fugal chorus, chorale, and aria with instrumental obbligato, tumble over one another in the space of about 11 minutes.
Work Details
Year: 2017
Instrumentation: 2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano, clarinet/bass clarinet, percussion, piano.
Duration: 11 min.
Difficulty: Advanced
Written for: Jessica Aszodi, Lucy Dhegrae, Jane Sheldon
First performance: at Resonant Bodies (Melbourne Recital Centre, Primrose Potter Salon) on 5 May 2017
Performances of this work
5 May 2017: at Resonant Bodies (Melbourne Recital Centre, Primrose Potter Salon).
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