Mother Tongue

Liza LIM
Born 1966, Perth, Australia

Mother Tongue (2005)

soprano, piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet/bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, contrabassoon, trumpet, trombone, percussion, violin I, violin II, viola, violoncello, contrabass
Duration 37'
Commissioned by Festival d'Automne, Ensemble Intercontemporain and ELISION Ensemble
Poems by Patricia Sykes commissioned by Liza Lim

Mother Tongue -- there are so many aspects to this rich and emotionally complex subject. One thinks of childhood and the intimate quality of first expressions, and of how this child language returns to us near death. One thinks of the fragile and robust ways in which language shapes the transactions of thought and acts as a compass for our perceptions and feelings. Then there are the reverberations of loss when a language with its registers of knowledge disappears from the world, as when a giant tree is felled in an ancient forest.

This music navigates some of these impulses and resonances -- veiled, submarine, shimmering, visceral, shadowy and radiant, pulsing and still. It is inspired by Patricia Sykes' poems, which demonstrate the symbolic magic of words. These are words as transformative gestures through which one says `let this thing stand for that', in the way

the water in us mirrors erosion:
the future stalking us from behind
uncovers a radiance of ellipses
--Patricia SYKES Mother Tongue

First performance was 30 November 2005, Cité de la Musique, Paris by Ensemble InterContemporain, conductor Jonathan NOTT, soprano Piia KOMSI

Programme note © Liza LIM, April 2005