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The Devil's Punchbowl (1987) |
The Devil's Punchbowl was conceived as an imaginary musical landscape, inspired by an extraordinary circular earth formation in Oxfordshire that I saw whilst walking the Ridgeway path.
I have translated the vast and varied geography of The Devil's Punchbowl into a spatial-antiphonal layout for the forces involved. The children are divided into six groups forming a large circle, with the small chamber orchestra positioned in the centre of the performing area.
Each of the children's groups rotate different layers of material around the circle, providing a constantly varied backcloth of textures to the timeless shifting harmonies and melodies in the orchestra, creating a landscape of changing background and foreground perspective.
© Simon Bainbridge