Sounds, and Sweet Airs

Davies, Tansy

About the work

I took the text for this cantata from Caliban’s famous evocation of the strange music of the island in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It is constructed as a series of interlocking verses and refrains.The refrains are rhythmical and repetitive, the verses explore the atmospheres and colours of the text.In a way it is a memorial to the great Greek composer Xenakis who has also set this text and who died in 2000.

First Performance: 27 July 2001, Bretton Hall, Yorkshire

Technical notes

Choir also required to play at least 6 ocarinas, 6 bottles, 6 swanee whistles and as many bunches of keys as possible.

Origin

COMA commission 2001