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Sorrow, and its beautyMichael FINNISSY
This piece is one of several exploring the work of Oscar WILDE. The theme of falsehood, of faking or creating `faulty' (precarious) relationships between things is the topic here. The text, by Wilde, is on the `inside' of the music. It consists of two sentences, one from The Art of Lying (in English) and one from Salomé (in French). "Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art." Neither sentence is heard complete but is broken up into individual phonemes. The music does not seek to reproduce the `drama' or `sense' of these words -- it co-habits (in parity) with them. Sorrow, and its beauty for voice and two instruments was commissioned by the Berliner Festspiele and the ELISION Ensemble for performance in the Maerzmusik Festival, 15 March 2003. Programme note © Michael FINNISSY |
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