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)

Composer UK / NZ
Co-director, Smorgaschord
Péter Eötvös Foundation Mentoring Programme 2023

Sebastian Black

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