The Sirens Cycle

for coloratura soprano (or soprano) and string quartet

Texts by James Joyce, Homer and Franz Kafka

coloratura soprano (or soprano) and string quartet

Edition: Score and parts

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Description

The Sirens Cycle consists of three movements for string quartet with soprano and two electronic interludes. The negation of song in Franz Kafka’s Das Schweigen der Sirenen [The Silence of the Sirens] inspired me to compose a work reflecting on song itself. I took an extract from Ulysses by James Joyce and requested IRCAM in Paris to transform the text through spectral analysis into pitches, note values and tone colours. In the first movement, I strictly adhered to the resulting note sequence, but increasingly became liberated from it during the progress of the work. I linked the quartet movements with interludes evoking audible associations with the song of the sirens. Peter Eötvös

Content

I James Joyce (Ulysses)
Interlude ad lib. (electronics)
II Homer (Odysseia)
Interlude ad lib. (electronics)
III Franz Kafka (Das Schweigen der Sirenen)

More Information

Title:

The Sirens Cycle

for coloratura soprano (or soprano) and string quartet

Texts by James Joyce, Homer and Franz Kafka

Language:

Ancient Greek, German, English

Edition:

Score and parts

Publisher/Label:

Schott Music

Year of composition:

2015 - 2016

Duration:

45 ′

World Premiere:

October 1, 2016 · London (UK)
Wigmore Hall
Piia Komsi, soprano; Calder Quartet
(World Premiere without live electronic)

October 12, 2016 · Paris (F)
IRCAM
Audrey Luna, soprano; Calder Quartet
(World Premiere with live electronics)

Commissioned work :

Co-commissioned by Wigmore Hall with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Fondation Hoffmann, a Swiss grantmaking foundation; Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich; Alte Oper Frankfurt; Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical, Madrid; Ircam-Centre Pompidou, Paris; ProQuartet-Centre européen de musique de chambre, Paris and by the Südwestrundfunk (Kompositionsauftrag des Südwestrundfunks)