a tulip, iron for soprano, tenor, violin, viola and cello
by Angela Elizabeth Slater (2023) text by Kendra Preston Leonard
Note from librettist Kendra Preston Leonard:
a tulip, iron is about the fear and horror created by psychological and emotional abuse, the relief of escape from abuse, and the work required to contend with traumatic memories of it. Using Perle Fine’s work The Early Morning Garden (1957) as a focusing device for this lyric, I work with elements of the natural world as well as my own personal history. The mezzo soprano and tenor serve as protagonist and antagonist, respectfully, and I’ve made it deliberately unclear as to whether their texts and interactions are taking place in the present or are memories. The text is in three loose sections, through which the protagonist moves from fear and intense self-doubt into greater agency, grapples with the causes and extent of her wounds, recognizes how trauma has shaped her, and becomes able to distance herself from it. The antagonist diminishes and humiliates the protagonist, causing her to hesitate and sing in fragments of sentences. He calls her simple and an embarrassment, disparaging her mind and body and abilities, even as she begins to communicate more fully and lyrically and draws on
a wider world for her outlook. Finally, he—or the memory of his words and actions—falls silent, becoming nothing to the protagonist, as she leaves the scene—or memory—with self- determination.
Note from the composer Angela Elizabeth Slater:
When I approached Kendra for a unique text to set, I asked her to explore memory as something difficult, questioning why certain things happened the way they happened, questioning yourself and whether things were your own fault. I wanted the text to draw on the deep intense emotions that still bubble over the surface from the bullying and gaslighting. I experienced at school.
I have found this text deeply emotionally powerful to set. Alongside this, I engaged with the visual stimulus of Perle Fine's work The Early Morning Garden. Taken together, these helped me find a soundworld that is a mixture of fragility and strength, whilst exploring the nuances of colours and distinct gestural shapes for both the string players and the vocalists. The piece should be treated as an imagined scene from a larger narrative trajectory set ambiguously in memory or somewhere real; perhaps it is both.

Sandrine Schau, soprano
Louis Tiemann, tenor
Lovisa Ehrenkrona, violin
Nicholas Algot Swensen, viola
Tom Pickles, cello

CREATIVE DIALOGUE FRANCE 2023
Concert de clôture, Saint Florent le Vieil 27.8.2023

a tulip, iron for soprano, tenor, violin, viola and cello

Hidden Flame for solo violin.  
Commissioned by Filipino artist Mart Henry Bongabong for the new painting series ‘Mamlakah’.  

Each piece is inspired by a verse from the Biblical passage of Matthew on the theme of Mamlakah.  The intense, chromatic nature of the paintings radiate changing, scattered light which is reflected in the compositions through a sense of synaesthesia.  (The crossing of sound/colour senses). 

Composed by Caroline Bordignon.
Performed by violinist Mirjam Bartol.

Recorded in London, U.K.
January 2023.

Hidden Flame

Hidden Flame (2022)

Destine for solo violin.  
Commissioned by Filipino artist Mart Henry Bongabong for the new painting series ‘Mamlakah’.  

Each piece is inspired by a verse from the Biblical passage of Matthew on the theme of Mamlakah.  The intense, chromatic nature of the paintings radiate changing, scattered light which is reflected in the compositions through a sense of synaesthesia.  (The crossing of sound/colour senses). 

Composed by Caroline Bordignon.
Performed by violinist Mirjam Bartol.

Recorded in London, U.K.
January 2023.

Destine

Destine (2022)

A duo for clarinet and piano, performed by ensemble intercontemporain.

Shard (clarinet and piano duo)

And the Sun Stood Still [EXTRACT]
- for Symphony Orchestra

Commissioned and premiered by the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Bramwell Tovey at the QEH in December, 2018.

Inspired by the winter solstice and the primal, prehistoric resonance that it holds. Images of bleached, mid-winter landscapes; crystal shafts of frozen light and an intense, bright, burning sun low on the horizon.

The energy within shafts of frozen light is depicted alongside the intense darkness invoking the ancient belief that the winter solstice was a day when dangerous spirits walked the earth. Seeing the sun at its lowest point in the sky made people fear that its strength would never return.

But ultimately the winter solstice brings a feeling of hope and renewal.

© Copyright Sarah Frances Jenkins

And the Sun Stood Still [EXTRACT]

A new version of this track, with an improved arrangement.

Original composition for string orchestra and percussion - Tom Haniff

Artwork: 'Burning Ship' - Ivan Aviazovsky (1817 - 1900)
www.wikiart.org/en/ivan-aivazovsky

Tom Haniff - Burning Of The Galleon - Redux

Twilight Inversions for orchestra (2018)
Twilight Inversions has been written for the London Firebird orchestra after winning their Young Composer of the Year 2018 competition. The inspiration for Twilight Inversions came after seeing a beautiful and mesmerising time-lapse video by photographer Kris Williams of cloud inversions on Snowdonia. In this video the clouds flow like water over the contours of the mountains and the twilight sky shimmers above the clouds. The clouds are, in effect, inverted so they sit below our feet whilst a vibrant colourful twilight sky is seen above. The piece explores the effervescently delicate textures and colours of these time-lapse images, and reflects the dramatic movement and darkening of the clouds across the time-lapse.
An􏰀gela Elizabeth􏰁 Slater

Twilight Inversions

performed by Matthew Olyver and Irantzu Agirre

Afterglow - for harp, cello da spalla and viola

Kate: Caroline Blair
Leslie: Simone Ibbett-Brown

Librettist: Sarah Sigal 
Composer and multi-instrumentalist: Matthew Olyver
Sound Engineer: Kirthan Pillai

We Never Sleep (from the opera 'The Agency')

Caroline Bordignon is modern-day, female composer exploring aspects of colour, light, space, time and ways these interrelate in musical and visual expression through synaesthesia.  Her music has been performed internationally and she has collaborated with artists around the world.  Recently she composed a series of solo violin works for the new painting series ‘Mamlakah’ by Filipino artist Mart Henry Bongabong.  ‘Desert Rose,’ a series of musical compositions and paintings was first premiered in a sea-side village on the Island Garden City of Samal, Philippines.  She is currently composing and painting new works for ‘Desert Rose’ which will receive further premieres in Asia later this year.
Hailing from Canada, she now lives in England.

Hidden Flame (2022)

CAROLINE BORDIGNON

Related tracks