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Kenneth Hesketh's Theatre of Attractions in North American Premiere

Feb. 28, 2008

The North American premiere of Kenneth Hesketh's Theatre of Attractions takes place on March 11 at the hands of Maestra Véronique Lacroix and the Ensemble contemporain de Montréal in a program celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec. Commissioned by the Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, the work incorporates footage of Liverpool at the turn of the 20th century by the Lumière brothers and Edwardian film makers Sagar & Mitchell. The composer elaborates:

The city is shown in all its various shades of urban flux, producing imagery both fragile and vibrant. The musical narrative, equally capricious, often runs contrary to the visual suggestion. Together, such filmic and musical figures are allowed to orbit one another, providing an arena where they may collide or even merge to form strikingly beautiful or even starkly aggressive new forms.

The idea of a diptych - a thematically-linked sequence of two halves - is musically appropriate as well. The first part of this 'hinged' pair (Time's Music Box)is musically circular, beginning and ending with similar textures and atmospheres. The second part L'heure dorée/Marionnette (marotte), is itself in two parts thus forming a second, smaller diptych. The celebratory tone found in this movement is always sardonic, always sneering. As textures become more and more rapid and chaotic a more drunken sense of lurching time encroaches until finally the music collapses in a rapid downward descent.

The Ensemble contemporain de Montréal's North American premiere performance of Theatre of Attractions takes place on March 11 in Montreal's 5e Salle de la Place des Arts followed by a performance at Quebec's Salle Multi, Complexe Méduse on March 18.

Please visit www.schott-music.com to learn more on the music of Kenneth Hesketh.

For further information regarding Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, please visit www.ecm.qc.ca.

Kenneth Hesketh
Theatre of Attractions (2007)
(Diptych for film)
I - Time's Music Box
II - L'heure dorée/Marionnette (marotte)
fl(pic, afl)cl(bcl, eb cl)hn(fly fishing reel)perc.pno(wd block)vn(maracas)vc
22'

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