Score & Part
2 Rilke Lieder, op. 20 : for soprano, viola/viola d'amore and clarinet / Jack Symonds.
Library shelf no. 783.66542/SYM 1 [Available for loan]
Work Overview
Rilke's Die Engel and Lòˆsch mir die Augen aus are two poems which display his visionary conception of the spiritual and of love. In Die Engel, the five movements of the composition cut across Rilke's text overlaying a new structure on his mystical evocation of a terrifying angel. The 'Alpha-and-Omega' quality of this figure is here represented by palindromes both exact and inexact. The outer movements are exact palindromes, the second and fourth fast movements and gestural palindromic variations, and the central slow movement contains palindromic interval shapes.
In contrast, Liebeslied fanatically dissects Rilke's extraordinary nine-line evocation of a love so powerful it can transcend the body into a nine-part form made of collections of genre pieces, each colouring a single line. First come a series of four variations on a chord, widening the expressive extreme until almost breaking. Next is a pair of Hommages - the first is to Salvatore Sciarrino, where the 'breaking' is here achieved with his characteristic splintered quietude. Next is a genuflection to Hans Werner Henze - describing hands and hearts -, which strings together tiny splinters from some of his most euphoric passages. Finally, three quick canons all run together, contorting themselves in increasingly complex contrapuntal formations until a canon at the unison ties an open-ended knot.
Work Details
Year: 2014
Instrumentation: Soprano, viola/viola d'amore, clarinet.
Duration: 8 min.
Difficulty: Advanced
Contents note: Die Engel -- Liebeslied.
Commission note: Commissioned by Jane Sheldon.
First performance: by Jane Sheldon, James Wannan, Jason Noble — 18 Jul 14. Symbiosis I, 107 Projects, Redfern, Sydney
The composer notes the following styles, genres, influences, etc associated with this work:
German poetry
Performances of this work
18 Jul 14: Symbiosis I, 107 Projects, Redfern, Sydney. Featuring Jane Sheldon, James Wannan, Jason Noble.
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