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Sheet Music: ScoreI am writing in this book, opus 88 : for soprano, mezzo-soprano, cello, double bass, percussion, harp and piano / Andrew Schultz.by Andrew Schultz (2011)
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Product details
The work is made up of settings of five songs in English on texts from the tenth century The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon adapted by the composer. In developing the work I have been interested in some of the timeless ideas and contradictions in Shonagon's famous Japanese text. Self-conscious female allure contrasted with powerlessness and anger, the malevolent and liberating force of language, and the sensual and material world sitting in contrast to the artist's inner life. The Pillow Book consists of a diary of anecdotes, often quite quirky and poetic lists, and contemporary literary accounts written over a period of many years. The diary was written on paper given to Shonagon by the Empress in whose court she served. As a diarist, Shonagon seems to exemplify the artist's continual paradox - wanting artistic privacy but working in a form that is inherently destined to be public. So it is not surprising that many have been drawn to her work over the centuries and seen in it a mirror for the contemporary world as well as a unique insight into feudal Japan.
My work charts Shonagon's growth as a woman and a diarist from enthusiastic and naïve in the first song, through three songs that show her world and range of interests, to a final song steeped in the bitterness and dissolution of old age. The texts for the songs are in some cases overlapping combinations of different parts of the original.
Published by: Australian Music Centre — 1 facsimile score (51p. -- A3 (portrait))
Difficulty: Advanced
Duration: 18 mins
1. A gift of paper (2 min., 35 sec.) -- 2. Secret meetings (4 min., 30 sec.) -- 3. Language of women (3 min., 40 sec.) -- 4. I see the word ‘storm’ (3 min., 30 sec.) -- 5. It is getting dark 2 min., 50 sec.).
First performance by Halcyon, David Stanhope at Halcyon: Life on Paper (Verbrugghen Hall) on 18 Sep 2011
Includes text of original poems.
Typeset edition.
ISMN: 979-0-720117-72-0
Related products
This work is also available in the following products:
CD: I am writing in this book, op. 88 / Andrew Schultz ; Halcyon.
CD: Works by Carl Vine, Andrew Schultz, Elena Kats-Chernin, Paul Stanhope
CD: This moment must be sung : chamber songs of Andrew Schultz / Halcyon.
- Browse other works for Duos: Soprano, mezzo-soprano with chamber ensemble
- Browse other works by Andrew Schultz
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