The Four Temperaments

Burrell, Diana

About the work

The text comes from the ‘Kalevala’, and the Old Testament (Jeremiah, Psalms and Job). The players should speak the lines quite matter-of-factly and fairly fast. Individual meaning is not meant to come across.

First Performance: COMA, 31 May 2003, Assembly Rooms, Bath Festival

Technical notes

This piece was written for CoMA, whose forces vary widely from performance to performance. It is therefore a flexible work. The conductor is free at all times to make appropriate adjustments or substitutions in the scoring in order to produce the best overall musical effect

Origin

Commissioned by CoMA