All in Elgar

I composed this piece in an attempt to understand trance. I sought to merge specific leitmotifs and elements,embedding them within a classical orchestral context. This purely intuitive and emotional act, guided by the sensations inspired by the sound archive, follows no predefined methodology other than that narrated by improvisation itself, as articulated by the archive. 

The guiding thread is clearly the archive, serving both as a foundation of respect and as a compass for the composer. At eight distinct moments, sliding sounds of bowed strings emerge, followed like a shadow by a frenzied percussion that articulates an almost inhuman cadence. By placing these two sonic environments in contrast, the restraint of the classical orchestral language and the unbridled surge of ritual, I believe a union is established between two styles which, though articulated differently, pursue the same aspiration, the transcendental, the absolutely spiritual, intertwining and mutually illuminating one another.

In order to avoid falling into a crude and short sighted orientalism, I have condensed into a modal term a sense of chaos and discomfort inherent to the ethnomusicologist or anthropologist, perpetually questioning themselves, when confronted with works of such overwhelming and divine intensity. Like the incarnation of a demon, of virtuosic prowess, of an abyssal instrumentation that never falters and never ceases, the new layers of the composition must become part of this sonic chaos. It is a distant voice, one that I recognise, and which has only been able to reach my ears through flamenco, native to my Spanish homeland. 

I deliberately refrained from pursuing deeper research so as not to over-determine symbolism, which, through my own interpretative lens, might have withered any attempt at spontaneity inherent in the experience of this music. Reference is thus made to sonic patterns, to repetition and recurrence, and almost to delirium and possession, of the musicians themselves and of the orchestral instruments. Ultimately, this composition stands as a nod to Edward Elgar, an abstract gesture of camaraderie in the face of the immensity of cultures and sonic narratives which, converging in a creative moment, are ultimately reduced to the act of recounting daily life and the emotions, inquietudes, and curiosities, that embody the human condition.

Stringed instrument and tabla reimagined by Angela Tisner.

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Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds