Cityscape (2008)
14 minutes
for mezzo-soprano, baroque flute, violoncello, and harpsichord.
Commissioned by Adelaide Baroque Ensemble Musica da Camera with assistance from the Australian Council for the Arts.
First performance by Musica da Camera (Tessa Miller, Tim Nott, Hilary Kleinig & Glenys March) on 19th October, 2008 at the Radford Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia.
Texts taken from poems by Sara Teasdale, Walt Whitman, William Wordsworth, Oscar Wilde, Goethe and Kipling.
Reference recording available upon request
14 minutes
for mezzo-soprano, baroque flute, violoncello, and harpsichord.
Commissioned by Adelaide Baroque Ensemble Musica da Camera with assistance from the Australian Council for the Arts.
First performance by Musica da Camera (Tessa Miller, Tim Nott, Hilary Kleinig & Glenys March) on 19th October, 2008 at the Radford Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia.
Texts taken from poems by Sara Teasdale, Walt Whitman, William Wordsworth, Oscar Wilde, Goethe and Kipling.
Reference recording available upon request
The premise given to me for my commission for Musica da Camera was to work with the theme of cities, incorporating four cities which feature prominently in the history of Baroque music- London, Rome, Paris and Hamburg. I decided quite early on not to attempt to fashion the ensemble into an industrial noise-making machine, but rather let the four cities guide my choice of text, and then allow the text to further guide the structure and sound of the music. The resultant work is part song cycle, part modern-day suite; a series of images played ‘attacca’, each with their own view of a city.
The text I decided upon is a collection of poems and poetry excerpts by a range of authors, fashioned into a narrative that explores the theme of ‘Cityscape’ in a multitude of ways. The industrial vigour, noise and energy of a busy city port is expressed in Whitman’s City of Ships, and this section of the piece presents the most dense, tumultuous orchestration. Wordsworth’s Composed Upon Westminster Bridge is itself a cityscape- painting a portrait of the city as calm and sleepy, but not without a hint of the sinister. The simple folk-like melodic drive of this song imitates this view.
Three of the focus cities, Paris, Rome and London, are mentioned by name within the text of ‘Cityscape’. The fourth, Hamburg, although not sung directly, is the title of the opening lines by Sara Teasdale. There is no intention for the music to reflect each of the specified cities- only to convey various images or snapshots of what a city can evoke- a home; an industrial hub; a foreign or familiar landscape; a place of refuge or of hardship; a forgotten horde of memories; a place of helplessness, of joy, or of power.
© Anne Cawrse, 2008
The text I decided upon is a collection of poems and poetry excerpts by a range of authors, fashioned into a narrative that explores the theme of ‘Cityscape’ in a multitude of ways. The industrial vigour, noise and energy of a busy city port is expressed in Whitman’s City of Ships, and this section of the piece presents the most dense, tumultuous orchestration. Wordsworth’s Composed Upon Westminster Bridge is itself a cityscape- painting a portrait of the city as calm and sleepy, but not without a hint of the sinister. The simple folk-like melodic drive of this song imitates this view.
Three of the focus cities, Paris, Rome and London, are mentioned by name within the text of ‘Cityscape’. The fourth, Hamburg, although not sung directly, is the title of the opening lines by Sara Teasdale. There is no intention for the music to reflect each of the specified cities- only to convey various images or snapshots of what a city can evoke- a home; an industrial hub; a foreign or familiar landscape; a place of refuge or of hardship; a forgotten horde of memories; a place of helplessness, of joy, or of power.
© Anne Cawrse, 2008