Score
Mantoux : for mezzo soprano and cello / Anthony Moles.
Library shelf no. 783.254/MOL 1 [Available for loan]
Work Overview
The Mantoux test is a method of screening for tuberculosis, and the title of an (undated, unconfirmed) public service announcement film made by Edgar G. Ulmer to help counter the spread of the disease. Ulmer, an Austrian director who had been apprentice to F. W. Murnau, had slid into the obscurity of "Poverty Row" B-movies and for-hire public health films after an affair (later marriage) that offended high-ranking Hollywood executives.
Ulmer's filmography is now taken seriously: even his tuberculosis
reels are striking for their sense of contamination and hidden
threat. Nonetheless, in his lifetime the director saw his work as
commercial and compromised, and perhaps even felt himself
contaminated: in need of (and without) "absolution"
- Laurence Barratt-Manning.
Composer's Note
I approached the piece
as if it were a short prologue to an imaginary music drama about
the life and career of Edgar G. Ulmer. In Mantoux the
singer acts as a form of Greek Chorus or narrator in a prelude to
the imagined drama.
- Anthony Moles
Work Details
Year: 2020
Instrumentation: Mezzo-soprano, cello.
Duration: 5 min.
Difficulty: Advanced
Dedication note: For Jenny
Commission note: Commissioned by Halcyon.
First performance: at After Dark (Summer Hill Church) on 10 Sep 2022
Performances of this work
10 Sep 2022: at After Dark (Summer Hill Church).
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