CRIMSON - Molly’s Song 1 (1995)

For 12 Soloists, Mechanical Metronomes, Whistles and 3 Music Boxes*

Ob, Bcl(=Cbcl), Hn, Tpt(=Ptpt), Tbn, Perc, Hp, 2Vln, Vla, Vlc, Db(5str) + Metronomes,Whistles,3 Music Boxes.

24’

Commissioned by the Austrian Radio
Engraving financed by the Scottish arts council.

First performed 6 October 1995, Musikprotokoll Graz, Saal Steiermark, by Klangforum Wien, conducted by Johannes Kalitzke

CD: WDR3 Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik 1996

EP 7504

CRIMSON - Molly’s Song 1 belongs to a group of compositions (the under-side of green (1994), CRIMSON - Molly’s Song 1 (1995), Molly’s Song 2 - a shade of crimson (1995), Molly’s Song 3 - shades of crimson (1995/96)) that were influenced by Molly Bloom’s closing monologue in James Joyce’s Ulysses. This relentless and intense monologue flows unpunctuated for 35 pages:

…and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and… yes…