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Katherine Balch
Phrases
| Subtitle | for soprano and double bass |
|---|---|
| Text information | Text by Arthur Rimbaud (1886) |
| Technical requirements | 2 scores required for performance. |
| Year(s) composed | 2017 |
| Publisher | Schott Music |
| Duration | 8' |
| Movements | I. le haut étant fume II. quand le monde sera reduit III. j'ai tendu des cordes IV. il sonne une cloche |
| Premiere | February 25, 2017; Columbia Composer’s Concert Series, DiMenna Center for Classical Music, NY; Charlotte Mundy (soprano) and Doug Balliet (double bass) |
| Commission | Commissioned by Departure Duo (Nina Guo, soprano and Eddie Kass, bass) |
| Language | French |
| Authorized translations | Translation by the composer |
| Composer note | I wrote this short set of pieces in a week in January 2017 when I was feeling very agitated and restless musically — stuck in the middle of a piece but frantic, like tight-knit jittering of molecules in a solid. These songs are in part a reflection of that nervous energy and in part a reminder to myself that writing music can be as much an exercise in lightness and ease of the pen as it can be one of rigorous self-reflection and scrutiny. The texts are excerpts from Rimbaud’s Phrases, which themselves feel like excerpts or fleeting fragments amidst longer aphorisms in his weird prose-suite Les Illuminations. Their aphoristic brevity exemplifies the abstract, ambiguous, but deeply beautiful language used throughout Les Illuminations. I don’t pretend to understand the poems, but rather usurp their words and sounds to reflect this restless quality they stir in me. – Katherine Balch |