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EARTH (1987-88) |
trombone, 1perc - 11' 30"
EARTH was commissioned by Barrie Webb and Elizabeth Davis (to both of whom it is dedicated) with funds from the Welsh Arts Council. The first performance took place in Amsterdam in June 1988. EARTH is the fifth in a series of eleven works collectively entitled Fictions (eventually completed in 1996). The meeting of trombone and percussion in EARTH might be likened to an encounter between two mutually unfamiliar cultures, the sounds and forms of the music to textures of soil and stone, or to geological processes, or even to a fictitious 'traditional music' of which this is the sole example. These are some ways in which the title could be interpreted; another is suggested by Samuel Beckett - 'Old earth, no more lies, I've seen you, it was me, with my other's ravening eyes, too late. (...) Not long now, how I gaze on you, and what refusal, how you refuse me, you so refused.'