Katherine Balch

waste knot

Subtitle	for soprano, ensemble, and tape cassettes
Text information	text by Alexandra Kleeman
Year(s) composed	2021
Publisher	Schott Music
Duration	13'
Premiere	February 19, 2023; Frankfurt, Germany Frankfurt LAB, Halle 1 Ensemble Modern; Sara Caneva, conductor; Nina Guo, soprano
Commission	written for Ensemble Modern, Sara Caneva, and Nina Guo
Language	English
Composer note	waste knot is a piece about leftovers and how to use them, a serenade to the lost or wasted time of this pandemic spell, to moments squandered by tangled spaces and the fickleness of memory. The text that guides the piece, by novelist Alexandra Kleeman, is an artifact of this period: scraps and sketches that will never be published but find a home in musical abstraction. – Katherine Balch