für 10 Instrumentalist*innen und 8 Sänger*innen
As part of the Musikfestivals Bern and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf//), and in collaboration with Schola Heidelberg, Proton present the world premiere of a new, concert-length work by James Dillon.‘ Lamentations’ draws on themes from the biblical Lamentations; it is structured as a triptych for 8 voices, 10 instruments and electronics.
The piece treats the Lamentations not only as an expression of grief, but also allows us to experience them as an act of protest and solidarity. The central movement, ‘Tenebrae’, refers only in name to the church rite of Holy Week, during which the candles are successively extinguished in the sombre masses. Darkness, much like in chiaroscuro painting, is the prerequisite for dramatic contrast, heightened expression and a three-dimensional sense of space.
Various, yet related, texts and images run through ‘Tenebrae’: for example, the ‘donna velata di pietà’, the veiled woman of compassion, and the ‘donna velata di lacrime’, the veiled woman of tears. The former has medieval Christian origins, whilst the latter has early Greek, probably pagan, origins.
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Commissioned by Ensemble Proton Bern and Schola Heidelberg.
The concert programme ‘Widerstehen’ is supported by:
Pro Helvetia
Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation
Hinrichsen Foundation
Vaughan Williams Foundation
