An die Strände der Ruhe - wo die Sonne untergeht T (o the beaches of tranquillity - where the sun goes down) (2015)
for orchestra with masks, sampler + female voice,
based on the poem 'wie erklär ich' by Nora Gomringer, quotes from a speech by the mayor of Lampedusa from 2013, and a text fragment by Helga Utz
Duration: 16 min.
Composition commissioned by the Saxon State Youth Orchestra and the Saxon Music Council
WP: 16 October 2015, Gewandhaus LeipzigVoice: Salome Kammer, Landesjugendorchester Sachsen, conductor Milko Kersten
Audio sample(excerpt)
Performance material available from Boosey & Hawkes
exact instrumentation: 2 fl, 2 ob, 2 cl, 4 hrn, 2 trpt, 2 pos, 2 perc, 1 timpani, harp, clav, sampler, 10 vl I, 8 vl II, 4 vla, 10 vc, 4 kb and female voice
see also a detailed description on the New Music Database...
Nora Gomringer: How do I explain
Have died
Have gone to heaven
Have flown
Atomised into the lungs
The ignorant
Those who want nothing to know
Havetakentheir children
To other countries
Or the parents' ashes
Scattered across the seven
oceans of the world
Today in the waves
In the sperm whale's belly
Procreating our sins
To the beaches
The calm
Reviews
Leipziger Volkszeitung, 19 October 2015, Birgit Hendrich
Full of tender poetry - state youth orchestra with a world premiere
"...Spoken words and sounds merge into one another, captivating and moving. Especially when the collage culminates in the world premiere of Iris ter Schiphorst's "An den Stränden der Ruhe..., wo die Sonne untergeht" (On the beaches of peace... where the sun sets) and the memory leads seamlessly to the problems of current refugee policy. Here, the members of the LJO act as musicians like mimic actors, with string glissandi and hoarse ship's foghorns in the brass adding to the oppressive atmosphere. Kammer's soprano shines sensitively ... Gomringer's texts are full of tender poetry and shake you up. No one can escape the immediate effect..."
Dresdner Neue Nachrichten, 20 October 2015, Alexander Keuk
"...There was also a world premiere by composer Iris ter Schiphorst entitled 'An den Stränden der RUhe..., wo die Sonne untergeht'. This was also a word-sound collage, which explicitly referred to the political presence of refugees in the Mediterranean - the orchestral musicians, now playing with masks, reflected the fates of the strangers, as the excellently realised, threatening sounds and theatrical actions created an atmosphere that soon tipped over from art-making into the drama of a documentation of the actual. As a concert experience, this was a unique, perhaps contradictory, but above all stirring experience."