related works

Worksongs / Will Eisma

Genre: Chamber music
Subgenre: Variable instrumentation

Seven Songs : for soprano and harp / Reza Nakisa

Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Voice and instrument(s)
Scoring: sopr hp

Trois poèmes de femmes : pour soprano et flûte, 2003 / poèmes de Denise Labordé, Claude Maillard, Jacqueline Risset, Bernard van Beurden

Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Voice and instrument(s)
Scoring: sopr fl

Monument to a Universal Marriage : Version for soprano and alto (or tenor and baritone or soprano and baritone), clarinet and string orchestra / Willem Jeths

Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Voice and instrument(s)
Scoring: zang cl str

composition

Le cheval mort : mezzo-soprano, bass clarinet, piano, percussion: marimba + tamtam, 2 synthesizers, 4 channel tape / text: Aloysius Bertrand, Will Eisma

Other authors:
Bertrand, Aloysius (Text writer/Librettist)
Eisma, Will (Composer)
Description:
Program note (English): The compositions Le Gibet and Le Cheval Mort were set to surrealistic poems by Aloysius Bertrand from his collection: Gaspard de la nuit, septième livre, Pièces détachées. The wonderful ambience derived from the poems inspired me to set some of these to music. The text of the poems expresses the dramatic environment of a battlefield and a graveyard. This lends itself easily to natural nocturnal sounds, bloodcurdling whistling and cracking noises. This is, however, something I wanted to avoid. I have tried to create an unreal atmosphere in my music. In Le Cheval Mort the electronics are prominent, especially in the second half of the work. It was written for the music festival in Witten, Germany and received its première there in 1976. - WILL EISMA