Nephéles for orchestra
TLSO commission
Performance on 31st October 2013 at Blackheath Halls, Blackheath, London.
Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Howard Williams
Nephéles is an experimental piece, in which every single member of the orchestra, including the conductor, is expected to walk in the concert hall and surround the audience while looping a musical phrase. The sound they produce will fade out as all members of the orchestra gradually pass through the unseen "wall" separating them and the audience. The piece is meant to encourage both audience members and performers to think outside the box, to consider why the theatrical "4th wall" exists to separate audience and performers and what it serves, and to question the culturally acquired modes of social behaviour expected from us when creating or attending events such as a classical music concert.
Programme note: It looked like a ghost army marching down from the mountain, a cloud so thick you could almost touch it. The mist would drown the town in a murky silence, our whispers faceless bouncing off hidden walls, waiting for the song of that distant rain. Then, it would leave as quickly as it had come, rising swiftly and vanishing in the horizon, taking with it the sound of the weary footsteps of the unseen traveller who came in the darkness. The light would return, and the world would remain unchanged, save for the hearts of men. You see, for centuries we have watched these passing clouds, longing for the freedom of the endless sky. For when the mist would come we could enter the clouds, but dream as we might, we could never ride them. And so the clouds would go on wandering freely over mountains and valleys, past rivers and oceans, ever ignoring the borders of men, always heading east, always coming, always going...
Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Howard Williams
Composition: Andreas Papapetrou
Sound recording: Oli Haylett
Lighting: Malcom Richards
Filming & editing: Carmen Zografou