Sir Harrison Birtwistle
Nenia: The Death of Orpheus
Duration: 15'
Text von: Peter Zinovieff
Solos:
soprano
Instrumentation details:
3 bass cl (1. +cl(Bb)), crotales, pno (+prep.pno)
Birtwistle - Nenia: The Death of Orpheus for soprano, 3 bass clarinets, crotales and piano
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Sir Harrison Birtwistle
Birtwistle: Nenia on the death of Orpheus for soprano, 3 bass clarinets, crotales and pianoOrchestration: for soprano, 3 bass clarinets, crotales and piano
Type: Studienpartitur
Audio preview
Work introduction
Nenia was the young composer’s first confrontation with the myth of Orpheus, followed later on by a number of other works in various generic groups (including his opera The Mask of Orpheus). Nenia is no traditional jeremiad; the new way of handling the voice was still very much in the air, four years after Berio’s Sequenza III. This lament is more hysterical (with its huge leaps in the soprano part) than dazed; only near the end does the singing break off, the soprano reciting words on the hero’s death. Birtwistle’s imaginative use of the unorthodox ensemble is remarkable.