Dedicated to the Hamburger Kammersängerin Gabriele Rossmanith.
Commissioned for the 1st Philharmonic Chamber Concert of the 2024|25 season by the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg.
Recording from the dress rehearsal on December 7, 2024, in the Elbphilharmonie, Kleiner Saal.

Gabriele Rossmanith (voice), Solveigh Rose (violin), Katharina von Held (double bass), Saida Timina (piano), and other members of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg. Yixie Shen (conductor).

——————————————————————————

Based on the poem of the same name by Ida Dehmel:

Ich sitze dunkle Frau in meinem Zimmer,
stille, große, dunkle (*) Frau.
Weiß ist das Zimmer, weit seine Wände;
weiß ist mein Kleid, mein Webstuhl weiß.
Und vor mir buntgehäuft ein Schatz Perlschnüre. 
Was will ich dunkle Frau denn weben? - Mein Leben.

Weiß, weiß und golden sind die Farben meiner Jugend,
ein morgenblauer Himmel über mir. 
Himmelschlüssel blühn auf unsern Wiesen. 
Viele kleine Blumen will ich weben, 
zart ein glückliches Lachen dazwischen, 
Alles leuchtet dem spielenden Kind.

Mutter starb. Die Farben werden blasser. 
Dunkle Trauerzweige sprießen auf,
schwanke Linien aus flimmerndem Grund, 
Thränen glitzern, Sehnsuchtsthränen.
Kind, ich große Frau möcht gern dich trösten; 
sieh, ich setz ein funkelnd Sternlein über dich.

Und nun mischen sich die bunten Perlen: 
stolz und heftig schießt ein Blutrot hoch 
durch ein trotziges Gelb in schroffen Kanten, 
hell im Kampf mit strengen grauen Mächten
bäumt die aufwärtsflammende Seele sich:
rot und golden sind die Farben dieser Jungfrau.

Und aus Rot und Gold paart sich ein Schrei nach Liebe.
Rosen blühn aus meinen Händen auf,
jeder Kelch voll Tau und Sonnentraum.
Schwer in Büscheln rankt sich ein Clematisstrauch
um die Rosen lilasanft ins Blaue;
die Verheißung glüht aus allen Blüten.

Die Erfüllung log. Nun wirren sich die Fäden.
Fahl und grell verschlingen sich die Schnüre.
Jeder Weg ein Irrweg, und kein Kreis geschlossen.
Zuchtlos drängt sich wildes Gestrüpp
über meine Wiesen, meinen Blumenteppich;
und der Stern der Mutter birgt sich hinter Nebeln.

Da – ein klarer Klang: stark: eines Helden Ton.
Schwarz wie der Ursprung, golden wie das Licht,
und moosgrün wie der Wald, aus dem die ersten Menschen kamen.

Auch blau sein Himmel, aber mittagsblau;
auch rot sein Blut, doch nordlichtnächtig rot.
Und über Alles breitet sich ein(*) Glanz.

————————————————————————

Photo © Claudia Höhne

Das Perlgewebe (2024) for string quintet, piano and voice [Text by Ida Dehmel]

Composer, pianist, & professor.
Omotesenke (表千家) tea ceremony's student

Patrick Ellis (b. 1994, UK) is a composer, performer and curator based in London. His music has been described as being "focused, intense and unrelenting" (Gaudeamus Jury, 2024), with much of his work utilising limited musical materials, small developments and juxtapositions.

He has worked with many acclaimed ensembles including Terra Invisus (UK), Ensemble Klang (NL), collective lovemusic (FR), XTRO Percussion (NL), the Residentie Orkest (NL), Kluster 5 (NL), Orkest de Ereprijs (NL), The Tantrum Saxophone Quartet (NL), The Spaceship Ensemble (NL), Kirkos (IE) and 315 Ensemble (US/UK), and has collaborated with soloists such as Kathryn Williams (flute), Huw Morgan (organ), Alfian Emir Adytia (cello), Dauphine Van der Velphen (saxophone), Chris Cresswell (electric guitar) and Carson Cooman (organ). 

Upcoming projects include a new multimedia work exploring burnout within the classical music industry for the ensemble Standard Issue, a new piece for electric guitar and fixed media for Chris Cresswell, as well as a long-form collaboration with the French-Canadian cellists Laurence Gaudreau and Audréanne Filion.

Patrick's music has been presented at numerous festivals and concert series across the European, North American, Asia and Australasia, including, Gaudeamus Festival (NL), Festival Dag in de Branding (NL), November Music (NL), Rainy Days Festival (LU), Mittelfest and Mittelyoung Festival (IT), De Link Tilburg (NL), Lilium SoundArt (IT), Sundays at The Hugh Lane Gallery (IE), AżTak Festival (PL), New Music Now NL's Dag van de Componist (NL), Click Fest (US), Sounding Here (NL), Kirkos Ensemble's Biosphere Festival (IE), Union Musicale (IT), Mainly Slow Organ Music (UK), Kammer Klang (UK), the Frequency Series Chicago (US), Ideas of Noise Festival (UK) and the Harmos Plural Festival (PT).

In 2024, Patrick was nominated for the Gaudeamus Award and in 2022, he was the Artist in Residence for the AMPA Fontys/De Link Residency programme in Tilburg, The Netherlands. He has also been a part of the Psappha Composing For Piano Scheme in 2019-20, the 25th Edition of Orkest de Erepijs’ Young Composers Meeting and Kathryn Williams' innovative Coming Up for Air Project.

His music has been broadcast on Dutch radio stations, including NPO Radio 4, NPO Klassiek, Concertzender,and Stranded FM, as well as on the US station WCNY, and has been featured on releases from Birmingham Record Company and Huddersfield Contemporary Records.

Patrick is also the artistic director of Open Union, an electric guitar and modular synth duo with composer-performer colleague Peter Bell. Described by the treasured composer Howard Skempton as being 'sometimes subtle and unstable; sometimes rich and dense', the duo aims to build up strong collaborative relationships to create new works. Their current collaborators are Christine Cornwell, Wilson Leywantono, May Chi, Paolo Griffin and Seán Clancy. The duo have performed across the UK at events such as Ealing Extranormal, AMOK, Don't Mind Control, Birmingham Modular Organisation and CODA Festival. In 2025, they co-hosted a portrait concert with saxophonist David Zucchi featuring music by Paolo Griffin at the Hundred Years Gallery; earlier in the year, they supported Passepartout Duo at Centrala Space, Birmingham as part of their UK Tour, and in 2023, undertook a mini tour of The Netherlands as part of the Sounding Here concert series, where they performed at Splendor in Amsterdam and Batavierhuis in Rotterdam.

Alongside composing and performing, Patrick is the creative director of PRXLUDES, an online contemporary music magazine, platform, and resource dedicated to the promotion of the work of emerging and early-career composers. Together, with the artistic director Zygmund de Somogyi and a team of contributors, they have written about over 125 composers, ensembles and music organisations from the UK and abroad. In 2025, they began hosting events, presenting Alex Groves' DANCE SUITE (performed by Zubin Kanga) as part of PRS Foundation New Music Biennial 2025.

He holds a Masters degree in composition from the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag (Royal Conservatoire of The Hague) and a Bachelor's degree from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. His principal tutors have included Martijn Padding, Guus Janssen, Andrew Hamilton, Seán Clancy, Ed Bennett, Howard Skempton and Michael Wolters.