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Opening of the Mouth and Tenebrae (1992-97) |
For voices, instrumental ensemble and electronics
Tenebrae and von Hinter dem Schmerz both form part of Opening of the Mouth, a composition for voices, instrumental ensemble and electronics, which was commissioned by the Festival of Perth and first performed there on 3 March 1977 by the Elision Ensemble – containing both of the present performers, with installations and video/slide projections by Crow. Opening of the Mouth, about 83 minutes long in a full performance, consists of a number of separately performable pieces, which in their larger context are variously fragmented, intercut and superimposed upon one another. The title refers to a ritual performed in ancient Egypt during the process of mummification, to restore the power of speech to the dead, thus enabling them to plead their cause before the judges of the underworld. The texts (including Tenebrae) were taken from the work of Paul Celan, whose own ‘mouth was opened’ by the holocaust – to those whose mouths were empty before being closed, the countless and the nameless. Celan’s language itself is a tongue from beyond the Nazi destruction of the German language, in Celan’s words, the “thousand darknesses of deathbringing speech”.
© Richard Barrett