Work Overview
The premise given to me for my commission for Musica da Camera
was to work with the theme of cities, incorporating four cities
which feature prominently in the history of Baroque music-
London, Rome, Paris and Hamburg. I decided quite early on not to
attempt to fashion the ensemble into an industrial noise-making
machine, but rather let the four cities guide my choice of text,
and then allow the text to further guide the structure and sound
of the music. The resultant work is part song cycle, part
modern-day suite; a series of images played 'attacca', each with
their own view of a city.
There is no intention for the music to reflect each of the
specified cities- only to convey various images or snapshots of
what a city can evoke- a home; an industrial hub; a foreign or
familiar landscape; a place of refuge or of hardship; a forgotten
horde of memories; a place of helplessness, of joy, or of power.
Work Details
Year: 2008
Instrumentation: Soprano solo, Baroque flute (or recorder), harpsichord (or piano), cello.
Duration: 15 min.
Difficulty: Advanced
Commission note: Commissioned by Adelaide Baroque with funds provided by Australia Council.
First performance: by Musica da Camera — 19 Oct 08. Radford Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Texts taken from poems by Sara Teasdale, Walt Whitman, William Wordsworth, Oscar Wilde, Goethe and Kipling.
Performances of this work
19 Oct 08: Radford Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.. Featuring Musica da Camera.
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