Sighs and Declamations

Horne, David

About the work

Sighs and Declamations

When initially commissioned to write a work for COMA, I was immediately excited by the challenge of composing an orchestral piece which didn’t rely on specific timbre, even though this is such a concern in all of my music. I was also keen to create music with rhythmic interest while maintaining a certain degree of simplicity. The sighs in the work’s title initially emanate from unison Ds which move around within the ensemble, by their very nature creating different colours, albeit variable depending on the type of ensembles employed. By contrast, the declamations are found in more energetic and rhythmically driven passages, frequently homophonic in nature. The ‘sigh’ material offers moments of repose in the work as the music dips in and out of silence. Neither musical strain wins out in the end however, and the music slips away with rapid figurations in the higher instruments, and a mechanical (if uneven) pulse in the bass.

David Horne, 2009

First Performance: Spitalfields Festival 2008, CoMA London Ensemble

Origin

Open Score 2007 Commissioned by Phil Cashian, artistic director of Open Score 2007