A few years ago, I got a sudden phone call from a friend to tell me that a family member had passed away. I was very confused. For better or worse, any encounter with contemporary music begins with confusion. As I listen, I get used to it, and sometimes I can see it much more clearly than I do now. This is because the stimulation reaches parts of the brain that I haven't used before, activating my senses.
I heard Clara Iannotta last fall. It was a new piece commissioned by a local artist, performed in a fantastic studio in Manhattan.
commissioned by Yarn/Wire and the Festival d’Automne à Paris, supported by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung
Excited to share my latest piece: glass and stone.
This is a very personal work, dedicated to the loss of my mother. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who helped bring it to life — especially Nicolas Cadena, whose vision and care brought the video to a new depth.
Clara is particularly interested in music as an existential, physical experience — music should be seen as well as heard. This is one of the reasons why she sometimes prefers to talk about the choreography of the sound rather than about orchestration.
She lives between Berlin and Boston.
From the program note,
S.O.S
I tied her to a chair
and put her in the care
of John of God.
They locked her in a box
of glass and stone:
a home from home.
Her skirt sagged at the hem.
She drummed upon her knee
and thought of me.
I never heard her gentle tap
upon my heart
when she slipped out.
I never heard her softly wrap
the sea around her
like a shroud.
My life was just too loud.
Dorothy Molloy
S.O.S
私は彼女を椅子に縛り付け、ジョン・オブ・ゴッドの世話に預けました。
彼らは彼女をガラスと石でできた箱に閉じ込めました。
まるで我が家のようでした。
彼女のスカートの裾はたるんでいました。
彼女は膝を叩きながら、私のことを考えていました。
彼女が抜け出すとき、私の胸を優しく叩く音も、私は一度も聞いたことがありませんでした。
彼女が海を覆いのように優しく包み込む音も、私は一度も聞いたことがありませんでした。
私の人生は、ただ騒々しすぎたのです。
ドロシー・モロイ
Yarn/Wire: Challenge to Difference
Other favorites
Intent on Resurrection / Matthias Pintscher•Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker
MOULT (2018-19) for chamber Orchestra
The purple fuchsia bled upon the ground. (2023/24)
Performed by Aimard, who has performed many contemporary art pieces, including Boulez. I heard Scriabin in New York this April, and the afterimage was incredible. It felt like being engulfed in a typhoon.