Name: Mechanical by Deadlastyear
Duration: 8 min 6 s
Description: Piece for Composers Studio, 2017. Thank you for the wonderful players of RCM!

People Help The People Cover

'Hectic', for male voice, recorders and tape - live recording by UMS 'n JIP

Hectic (2013, UMS 'n JIP)

'Intermezzo' for 2 bass clarinets + 2 cellos, premiered by Variable Geometry, RCM, 18 May 2012

Intermezzo (2012, VG)

Climax cover feat. C.Soelwijaya

Elemental 1 - 3 (Karlsruhe performance)

'In the Company of Nightingales' was commissioned by the Gaudier Ensemble, to remember and celebrate the sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska after whom the ensemble was named. Henri was quite a character and talented artist, who was killed aged 23 on June 5th 1915. The body of work he created before he died is impressive, and full of beautiful depictions of people and animals. What struck me most about Henri’s works was the beautifully smooth finish he created with stone, and how many of his sculptures were full of inviting curves I very much wanted to follow with my hand. In trying to express both the aesthetic quality of his style and the emotions and horror of his words, I was drawn to glissandi: held notes sliding up and down to mimic his round contours, and also the physical action of carving stone. His letters refer to nightingales several times, so a flavour of their song appears here and there, reflecting the soundscapes that brought him joy from amongst the gunfire. 

Performed July 9th 2015 by the Gaudier Ensemble at the Cerne Abbas Festival, with Will Dazeley as the solo baritone.

Image: Sleeping Fawn, 1913 (Kettle's Yard)

In The Company Of Nightingales

Piece for Composers Studio, 2017. Thank you for the wonderful players of RCM!

Mechanical

A song cycle setting three poems by August Stramm: 'Vernichtung', 'Frage', and 'Schrei'.

Despite being very difficult to translate, I immediately found August Stramm’s poems extremely evocative, emotive, and powerful. Most importantly, their abstract style and often frantic pace cried out to be set to music.

In this song cycle, I have tried to capture the vulnerability of a man who was not a natural soldier, and who despaired of war; who was horrified by what he saw, and was moved to capture his thoughts in poetry.

Workshopped and performed by the Helsinki Chamber Choir, as part of the Tenso Young Composers Workshop in Mechelen, May 2017
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0'00 – Vernichtung
3'18 – Frage
7'35 – Schrei
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August Stramm

August Stramm (1874-1915) was a German poet and playwright who is considered one of the first of the expressionists. He served in the German Army and was killed in action during World War I.

Mechanical

Deadlastyear

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