music for a lost opera (2024)

Composer's notes:

'It is in the heart of man that resides the life of Nature's spectacle: to see it you must feel it.'                                                                   Jean-Jacques Rosseau.

When I was asked to write a piece which expressed emotions, I immediately thought of the French Enlightenment and of Jean-Philippe Rameau. For me, his works personify the belief that universal feelings can be expressed, even transmitted through music, something he maintained due to his conviction that his music was derived directly from Nature itself. His opera Samson (1734), to a libretto by Voltaire, was completed but never performed due to censorship and the music was subsequently lost. I have selected different scenes from the libretto which run through a series of emotions. For each scene, I have written a short piece of instrumental music, using typical Rameau gestures to express the relevant emotion. Following the idea that these gestures derive from Nature, I have used them in conjunction with selected birdsongs and calls, which seem to me to express the same feelings. As the piece progresses, the distinction between the bird calls and the gestures becomes blurred, so that by the last movement they have completely absorbed one another.

Duration: 6'

Instrumentation: Chamber Orchestra (Fl. Ob. Cl. Bsn. Hrn. 2 Vlns. Vla. Vc. Cb.)

First Performance: Avanti! Orchestra, Porvoo, Finland, 30.06.2024.