related works

Le gibet : for baritone, instruments and live-electronic / words by Aloysius Bertrand, Will Eisma

Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Voice and instrument(s); Multimedia and singing voice(s) with or without instrument(s)
Scoring: bar fl(pic) ob(eh) cl(cl-b) perc pf vl vc electronics

Être poète : soprano, flauto, clarinetto, pianoforte, 1954 / Harold C. King

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

Two Rossetti Songs : for tenor, violin, cello and piano / Nestor Taylor; lyrics by Christina Rossetti

Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Voice and instrument(s)
Scoring: ten vn vc pf

Since you, sir, went away : for mezzo soprano, alto saxophone and piano / Erik Lotichius; text Chinese

Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Voice and instrument(s)
Scoring: m-sopr sax-a pf

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