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Oliver Knussen's Requiem - Songs for Sue with Great Noise Ensemble

Nov. 26, 2013

Oliver Knussen's <em>Requiem - Songs for Sue</em> with Great Noise Ensemble

On December 6, the Great Noise Ensemble presents a program titled “Naiskos” - music fueled by grief - and offers a performance of Oliver Knussen’s Requiem – Songs for Sue. Written for soprano and chamber ensemble, the work is a tribute to the composer's late wife, Sue Knussen. The work features English, German, and Spanish texts by W.H. Auden, Rainer Maria Rilke, Antonio Machado and Emily Dickinson. Commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for its MusicNOW contemporary chamber music series, Requiem - Songs for Sue premiered in 2006 featuring soprano Claire Booth and the composer conducting.

Knussen shares some insight into his work:

These songs grew from the inclusion of a fragment from Rilke's "Requiem for a Friend" in a memorial booklet for Sue Knussen. These extraordinary lines gradually acquired both music and other texts in my mind over the next few years, and Requiem - Songs for Sue is the outcome… The other words are from Emily Dickinson, Antonio Machado, and W.H. Auden (a special favorite of Sue's and mine). I hope the music allows them still to speak for themselves, although on occasion I have taken phrases quite far from their original sense. I wanted the sound to be predominantly autumnal in tone, and the instrumentation was chosen to that end.

The performance takes place at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington D.C. and also features works by David T. Little, David Ludwig, and Judah Adashi.

For more information about Oliver Knussen, go to www.fabermusic.com.

For concert details, visit www.greatnoiseensemble.com.

Oliver Knussen
Requiem - Songs for Sue (2006)
for soprano and ensemble
text (Eng., Ger., Sp.) by W.H. Auden, Rainer Maria Rilke, Antonio Machado, and Emily Dickinson
fl.afl.2cl.bcl-2hn-perc-pno(cel).hp-2va.2vc.1db
12’

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