Moira

In a hotel by the sea Werner Egk heard the wind singing under his door. He was enthralled listening to the elemental intensity of the wind, and assembled his musical material from the extreme dynamics and bizarre melodies he heard: ‘The song of the wind seemed to me to possess a passion far exceeding the power of a human being.’ (Werner Egk)

The title Moira refers to the ‘The  Fates’ of Ancient Greek mythology (moirai) to whom both gods and humans are captive. Their breath sounds like the whisper of the sea. In the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the work was described as a ‘compressed symphony of fate’.