Category: programme note
Annunciation Triptych (2019-2022)
Three scores sit on my desk in Berlin. They make up my large orchestral cycle, Annunciation Triptych (2019-2022) comprising: I. Sappho/ Bioluminescence (2019-2020)II. Mary/ Transcendence after Trauma (2020-21)III. Fatimah/ Flowers of Jubilation (2021-22) The various parts of this 50-minute cycle were commissioned by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the WestDeutscherRundfunk Sinfonie-Orchester, and the Symphonieorchester des ...
World as Lover, World as Self
I’m very excited to post that I’ve just finished composing a work: World as Lover, World as Self, for solo piano and orchestra, commissioned by the Donaueschinger Musiktage for a premiere at the 100th Anniversary (!) edition of the festival on 15th October this year. The work is written for the fabulous pianist Tamara Stefanovich with ...
on ‘Sex Magic’ (2020) for contrabass flute, electronics & kinetic percussion
[image of pre-Columbian Nariño ocarina, Met Museum New York, public domain] Sex Magic is a 45-minute piece for contrabass flute (with alto ocarina, Aztec ‘death whistle’, bell, pedal bass drum), live electronics and installation of kinetic percussion written for & dedicated to Claire Chase. The work was commissioned by Claire Chase to be Part Vii ...
more thoughts about the Annunciation
I’ve just completed writing the second orchestral piece of my Annunciation Triptych called ‘Mary/ Transcendence after Trauma’ for which I recently posted some sketches. I wrote about the first part, Sappho/ Bioluminescence earlier this year and now there’s one remaining part to compose, ‘Fatimah/ Flowers of Jubilation’. Mary/ Transcendence after Trauma was commissioned by the Musica Viva concert series ...
Current projects – Sappho & Squid
Excerpt from Sappho #94 from Anne Carson’s ‘If Not, Winter. Fragments of Sappho’, New York, Vintage Books, 2002. I’m currently working on several projects that celebrate ideas of spirituality bound together with feminine energy and erotics. There’s a 3-part work for orchestra called Annunciation Triptych and the somewhat provocatively titled Sex Magic, a big work for Claire Chase ...
The deep time of language
Back in 2005, I wrote a work called ‘Mother Tongue’ for soprano Piia Komsi & ensemble commissioned by the Festival d’Automne à Paris, Ensemble Intercontemporain and ELISION. The work sets poems by Patricia Sykes about the ecology of languages and knowledge, and the fragility of particular knowings in the face of language loss. There is ...
Liza Lim 