for solo cello

1. Declamato
2. Presto
3. Declamato—Presto 
4.Tense
5. Declamato
6. Cantilena: solemn, intense
7. Presto

Commissioned by Smorgaschord.

PROGRAMME NOTE

Cantastoria was composed with an usual concert in mind: surrounding the audience were to be eight paintings by the extraordinary artist, Eva Frankfurther (1930-1959). Frankfurther was a Jewish emigré to Britain, and before her tragically early death produced a large number of paintings of exceptional expressivity and depth. For much of her life she lived in Whitechapel and most striking among her output is perhaps her portraits of the residents of that community, particuarly those of Jews and newly arrived immigrants.

The title, Cantastoria, refers to tradition of storytelling in which a storyteller narrates a story while referring to a series of images—the most famous example being perhaps 'Der Moritat von Mackie Messer' from Der Dreigroschenoper (1928). This, given the nature of the concert, and lent an associative quality of the Whitechapel area by Brecht and Weill's
famous song, seemed like the perfect name for the piece.

Throughout the piece I employ a scordatura tuning in which the lower two strings of the cello are detuned by a semitone—the same as that so brilliantly employed by Zoltán Kodály in his Cello Sonata (1915). It lends the cello an exuberant, powerful sonority thatI found irresistible.

© Sebastian Black

Photo: ‘West Indian Waitresses’ by Eva Frankfurther c. 1955. Courtesy of the Ben Uri Gallery.

Cantastoria

Cantastoria (2022)

Ensemble ARS NOVA

Budapest Music Center | Hungary | 18 February 2023 |  Peter Eötvös Music Foundation 

***

‘What does the harp suggest?’, Louise Glück asks towards the end of her poem, ‘Fugue’:

What does the harp suggest?
I know what you want —
you want Orpheus, you want death.
Orpheus who said “Help me find Eurydice.”
Then the music began, the lament of the soul watching the body vanish.

Much of the music I have written mirrors scenes from Orpheus’s life (and brutal death), a subject that is very well served in Western art music. The title, and form, of Glück’s poem also seemed relevant to my piece, replete as it is with simple contrapuntal writing.

Throughout the piece, there is reference to harp- or lyre-like sounds, brought out, above all, by the unusual sound of cimbalom and the inside of the piano.
The piece is cast in one long, continuous movement. During its latter half there is a sequence of variations out of which the music gradually spirals towards its violent conclusion.

© Sebastian Black

Photo: Bálint Hrotkó | Péter Eötvös Foundation

What Does The Harp Suggest? (2022)

for wind quintet 

Ensemble ARS NOVA | Eglise Sainte Bernadette | Annecy, France | August 2023


I - birds ( here, inven ting air
II - Upon The Starry Sky
III - On The Mountain A Cry Was Heard 

Written for Péter Eötvös Foundation, European Creative Academy and Imperial Annecy Festival



Sebastian Black © 2023

Bunte Blätter (2023)

for 13 instrumentalists with obbligato oboe d'amore

Dunabia Orchestra Obuda | Sebastian Black, conductor

Budapest Music Center, Hungary | October 2023

Written for Péter Eötvös Foundation 

Sebastian Black © 2023

Like The Nightingale (2023)

These Harmonious Colonies (2024) | for choir and ensemble

What do you want with me?
Have I gone to England to rob you of land?
Are you going to tie me up, and make a slave of me?

Mitglieder der Chorakademie des WDR Rundfunkchores, des WDR Rundfunchores, der Orchesterakademie des WDR Sinfonieorchesters Köln und des WDR Sinfonieorchesters mit musikalischer Leitung von Gabriel Hollander

Uraufführung: 1. Mai 2024, WDR Funkhaus Köln

With generous support from the Vaughan Williams Foundation

TEXTS

The text is taken from the following sources:

An anonymous letter by ‘A Letter of Truth’ to the editor of the Daily Southern Cross (16 September 1843)

An editorial from the Daily Southern Cross (15 July 1843)

‘Captain Wakefield at Wairau’ from the Nelson Evening Mail (27 May 1933)

Psalm 2 (King James Bible)

These texts are stitched together to form a kind of collage. On one occasion I added a short phrase of my own to aid comprehensibility, and made other minor modifications. Words in te reo Māori have been aligned with standard modern spellings.

Please note that the piece contains themes of a violent and colonial nature, and that there is use of language associated with colonialism.

Sebastian Black © 2024

These Harmonious Colonies (2024) - excerpt: 12. Chorus

These Harmonious Colonies (2024) | for choir and ensemble

18. Epilogue. Chorus. 'How can our government'

Mitglieder der Chorakademie des WDR Rundfunkchores, des WDR Rundfunchores, der Orchesterakademie des WDR Sinfonieorchesters Köln und des WDR Sinfonieorchesters mit musikalischer Leitung von Gabriel Hollander

Uraufführung: 1. Mai 2024, WDR Funkhaus Köln

With generous support from the Vaughan Williams Foundation

TEXTS

The text is taken from the following sources:

An anonymous letter by ‘A Letter of Truth’ to the editor of the Daily Southern Cross (16 September 1843)

An editorial from the Daily Southern Cross (15 July 1843)

‘Captain Wakefield at Wairau’ from the Nelson Evening Mail (27 May 1933)

Psalm 2 (King James Bible)

These texts are stitched together to form a kind of collage. On one occasion I added a short phrase of my own to aid comprehensibility, and made other minor modifications. Words in te reo Māori have been aligned with standard modern spellings.

Please note that the piece contains themes of a violent and colonial nature, and that there is use of language associated with colonialism.

Sebastian Black © 2024

These Harmonious Colonies (2024) - excerpt: 18. Epilogue

These Harmonious Colonies (2024) | for choir and ensemble

4. Chorus. 'Here I am'
5. Recit. 'Mr Thompson told them'
6. Chorus. 'This is my land, and not yours.'
7. Recit. 'Mr Thompson stomped'
8. 'No do not fight'

Mitglieder der Chorakademie des WDR Rundfunkchores, des WDR Rundfunchores, der Orchesterakademie des WDR Sinfonieorchesters Köln und des WDR Sinfonieorchesters mit musikalischer Leitung von Gabriel Hollander

Uraufführung: 1. Mai 2024, WDR Funkhaus Köln

With generous support from the Vaughan Williams Foundation

TEXTS

The text is taken from the following sources:

An anonymous letter by ‘A Letter of Truth’ to the editor of the Daily Southern Cross (16 September 1843)

An editorial from the Daily Southern Cross (15 July 1843)

‘Captain Wakefield at Wairau’ from the Nelson Evening Mail (27 May 1933)

Psalm 2 (King James Bible)

These texts are stitched together to form a kind of collage. On one occasion I added a short phrase of my own to aid comprehensibility, and made other minor modifications. Words in te reo Māori have been aligned with standard modern spellings.

Please note that the piece contains themes of a violent and colonial nature, and that there is use of language associated with colonialism.

Sebastian Black © 2024

These Harmonious Colonies (2024) - excerpt: movements 4-8

To Shimmer, To Quiver, To Quake (2024)
study for 12 players

International Ensemble Modern Academy | Josephine Korda, conductor

Recorded at Lucerne Festival 2024

Photo: © Priska Ketterer | Lucerne Festival

Sebastian Black © 2024

To Shimmer, To Quiver, To Quake (2024)

Quintet for clarinet and string quartet (2024-5) 

Jonathan Leibovitz, clarinet | Quatuor Agate

Commissioned by Ipswich Chamber Music Society for their 100th Anniversary

Recorded live at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, February 2025


***


"My Clarinet Quintet is cast in a single continuous movement. After a slow and sombre opening, the music gradually builds to a climax across a complex web of rising tempos, before settling downwards towards its point of departure and falling beyond. About half way through, there is a moment of radical change—all tension is dropped and a wash of memories comes flooding in. As the music flows towards its conclusion, from bar to bar it acquires an almost magnetic attraction towards one particular harmony into which, with utmost tenderness, it ultimately resolves. Very often the music flickers and crackles, rather like an old black-and-white film. 

"As I was composing the piece, I read several novels by the Korean writer Han Kang, who received the Nobel Prize in October. Her tender and extremely pointed use of language (often embodying deeply felt emotion with immense restraint) inspired me to treat each note with equal intensity and care."

Sebastian Black

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