Silk for two sopranos, opus 47 (1993)
Silk is a short work for two sopranos, vibraphone, bass clarinet and double bass composed for the Song Company in 1993. They gave the work its first performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney as part of an Easter concert. The work is a setting of a short, anonymous Chinese poem that is both refined and erotic in its character. Although a short work, the harmonic and melodic impulse of the work has been strongly influential in other of my instrumental works including Silk Canons and Silken Weave. The harmonic material of the work derives from an earlier a capella piece for the Song Company, Ekstasis. Like Ekstasis, Silk interweaves the two soprano voices in free and exultant counterpoint.
Text of Silk, Anonymous Chinese erotica, c 14th Century
When you sat in your dark chair
Ripe with fat fruits of yellow.
Ripe fruits of yellow and red silk
Alive with blue lithe animals.
Pressing your scented, rose ended
Peach coloured feet against my face.
As you desired:
I was humiliated.
© Andrew Schultz, 1993.
Andrew Schultz – Silk
Composer’s MIDI reference recording.
© This recording is copyright and is intended for private listening use only. It may not be broadcast or distributed without permission.
Dark Chair is a later version of Silk scored for soprano and mezzo-soprano – more information regarding that piece and a live recording are available on this website here.
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