Birtwistle is deeply interested in verse and poetry, always considering if a text is 'settable' for musical composition.
Composition History
The texts for Birtwistle's Songs by Myself were written by the composer himself, 'dredged from the silt of my subconscious' during a holiday in Greece.
Compositional Technique
Birtwistle's Nine Movements for String Quartet and Nine Settings of Celan were interleaved to form Pulse Shadows, revealing parallels between the two cycles.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Sir Harrison Birtwistle, the composer, uses songs to express his melancholic personality, drawing inspiration from Elizabethan composer Dowland.
Composer Biography
Sir Harrison Birtwistle's output has consistently emphasized vocal music since the beginning of his career, even before his international breakthrough.
Compositional Technique
In Birtwistle's Orpheus Elegies, the oboe is considered the voice of Orpheus, rather than the counter-tenor who sings fragments of the poems.
Composer Biography
The Orpheus myth has been a lifelong obsession for Birtwistle, providing a continuous source of subject matter for his compositions.
You might also enjoy...
Finnissy, M.: This Church
Apocalypse: Choral Works by David Lancaster
Rebecca Saunders: Skin
John Tavener: Eternity's Sunrise
Bax: Orchestral Works, Vol. 8
Britten: Friday Afternoons; Holiday Diary; The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard; The Golden Vanity
Delius: Appalachia - Sea Drift
Thomas Adès: America
British Composers - Adès: America A Prophecy
Birtwistle: The Fields of Sorrow - Verses for Ensembles - Nenia: The Death of Orpheus
Delius: Hassan & Sea Drift & An Arabesk
Benjamin, G.: Into the Little Hill [Opera] / Dance Figures / Sometime Voices
Usher, J.: Sacred Physic
Tavener: No Longer Mourn for Me & Other Works for Cello
