Respiration m’inspire – 9th December

Following their last workshop where they tried out Wasserflut and Needles and Butter for size, mezzo-soprano Nina Whiteman and flautist Gavin Osborn will be workshopping a new duo of mine on Thursday.

Entitled ‘Respiration M’Inspire‘, the piece focuses on timbre and the intersection of techniques and sounds between the two players. Here’s the programme note:

In ‘Respiration m’inspire’, the two players engage in a dialogue of mimicry and imitation, outlining two contrasting textures – one dense and rhythmic, one sparse and motionless. Using sounds common to both ‘instruments’, the textures are alternated and developed until a climactic passage of conventionally sung material, after which a coda closes the work. The short texts highlight the shared breath-based characteristics of the flute and the voice: the short extract from Shakespeare plays on the double meaning of ‘expiring’ (to breathe out/to cease or die), while the voice’s French intonation at the end plays on the etymology of ‘inspiration’ (to breathe in).

Nina and Gavin will be workshopping my piece, along with two other mezzo-soprano/flute duets – Hannah Taylor’s ‘Silent Sign’ and Jasmin Rodgman’s ‘Piper’ – at the Cosmo Rodewald Hall, Manchester at 2.15. Incidentally, I announced recently that Trio Atem, Nina and Gavin’s able ensemble will be playing my Seven Face Pictures on the 13th January – it’s actually the 14th January, but they will be doing another workshop of that piece on the 13th…let’s hope they’re not sick of my music by then…