Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

Abbracciando Dumuzi (Italian for "Embracing Dumuzi"), for cello, vibraphone and togunggak ensemble, is based on my cello solo Who is like God?(ii):Embracing Dumuzi. Like the latter composition, it is intended as a musical portrayal of my invocation of the Sumerian deity, Dumuzi, the most ancient personification of the eternal cycle of life, death, destruction and renewal. In Sumerian mythology, Dumuzi is portrayed as a beautiful, innocently self-centred youth who dies and rises again, bringing both destruction and renewal with the turn of the seasons.

In Abbracciando Dumuzi the cello plays a modified version of Who is like God?(ii):Embracing Dumuzi, while the vibraphone reiterates a rhythmic pattern comprising harmonies and melodic fragments derived entirely from the cello line. While this material is unfolding, each player of the togunggak reiterates a different nine measure rhythmic loop, simultaneously, for eight cycles. This is intended to symbolize the mythological motif of "rebirth at the eighth stage, preceded by a journey through seven stages and death", encountered in numerous religious traditions.

Work Details

Year: 2012

Instrumentation: Cello, vibraphone and Togunggak ensemble.

Duration: 5 min.

Difficulty: Advanced

Dedication note: Dedicated to Lachlan Dent

First performance: by Lachlan Dent, Ross Carey, UiTM Togunggak Ensemble at Malaysian Composers' Series, Event 4: Ross Carey, Katia Tiutiunnik and Students (Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLpac)) on 1 Dec 2012

The composer notes the following influences/styles/genres associated with this work:
The music of Malaysian Borneo and the Middle East; the music of Sabah and Sarawak; Jewish music; Near Eastern music.