‘falling, falling from far afar...’ borrows its title from a line in Rilke’s ‘Autumn’.
The core of this composition is a free rendering for viola of an improvisation by Okura Shonosuke that combines
otsuzumi strokes (hand-held drum) and
kakegoe (shouts used in performances of Japanese music). The opening section presents sequences of melodic fragments distantly evocative of a Handel aria, interspersed with pizzicatos figures, that anticipate the largely percussive character of the Noh-theatre inspired music that makes the central section of this work. The closing section returns to the Handelian features of the opening.
First performance: 23 November 2021, Angela Burgess Recital Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London by Dorota Kolinek (viola).
Commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music for the
200 Pieces Project, as part of its Bicentenary Celebrations.
https://soundcloud.com/royalacademyofmusic/milstein-falling-falling-from-far-afar
- ISMN: 9790570684236 (M570684236)
