Demon

Wallen, Errollyn

About the work

The starting point for this piece was the vision of a walk into the desert and the fight with dark forces. I have taken and adapted extracts from St Mark 13 which foretell the plight of a nation forced to flee from oppression and natural disasters into the wilderness.

First Performance: CoMA Summer School Orchestra and Choir, Jul 1998, Bretton Hall, West Yorkshire

Technical notes

This an effective piece with lots of energy and a strong sense of direction. The vocal parts are fairly straightforward although there are a few tricky moments in terms of pitching. At first sight the uneven bar lengths in the first and last sections appear complex, but the strong sense of direction and the constant regular quaver pulse help to make the music feel quite natural. A slower, more reflective third section helps to diffuse the tension of the huge climax in the second section, before a reprise of the opening material brings the work to a quiet but emotional close.

Origin

COMA commission, 1998