)
search-1
search-1 Search
Located in the UK Located in the UK
    Located in the USA Located in the USA
      Located in Europe Located in Europe
        • Simon Holt

        • Icarus Lamentations (1992)

        • Chester Music Ltd (World)
        • 2acl/cimb/hp/str(2.2.3.3.2)
        • 16 min

        Programme Note

        Icarus Lamentations is scored for 2 clarinets, cimbalom, harp and a semicircle of strings. The shape of the piece doesn't necessarily follow the exact line of the myth but attempts to shed light in an almost cinematic way on various aspects of the story using a kind of "jump cut" technique. There are sudden recollections of desperate reelings about the sky as the boy, Icarus, tried to prevent his plummeting from the heavens during his flight from the Minotaur's labyrinth (constructed by his father, Daedalus), where he was held prisoner. He overambitiously aimed for the sun and the wax holding the feathers onto his makeshift wings melted, causing the inevitable disaster.

        'Icarus Lamentations' is dedicated to Iannis Xenakis (for his 70th birthday) and was first performed on the 28th May 1992 by the Guildhall Ensemble conducted by Simon Bainbridge.

        (c) Simon Holt

        Scores