Three Miniatures

i. wo?:

"Wo ist daheim?

Ist da daheim?

Ist da daheim? Ist da da....
Oh nein, oh nein, oh nein
Oh mein."

The text focuses on a play on words: Da (this, here), Daheim (home), nein (no), mein (mine).
The Soprano sings throughout the piece outside of familiar “home” harmonies and finally finds its home at the end resolving into the ninth of the chord which in this context sounds like a resolution but doesn’t feel like a “real” resolution in the most traditional sense. No sense of really coming home as one might experience after living abroad for a while. This process also occurs in the metre of the soprano: she is always off in relation to the instruments that try to “force” a sense of “home”.

ii. a universal law…horizon!:

"And this is a universal law: a li(h)iving thing can be healthy, strong and fruitful only when bounded by a horizon: if it is incapable of drawing a horizon around itself, and at the same time too self-centered to enclose its own view within that of another, it will pine away slowly or hasten to it’s timely end."

iii. o que a vida é!!

"A vida é chorar e rir a vida inteira,
Aproveitar momentos de tranqüilidade
E brincar um pouco,

Depois os outros

É aguentar.

Tranqüilidade

Tranliqüidade

Rir e rarcho

Chorar e rir!

Aguentar

Targuena

Guentara

Aguentar

A tei vei men.

Um! Pouco vida ra pro,

A in a tar.

Os motos brinnnnnn.....
Men car a, men car a!

A vida é um sopro!"

Composed 2011 / 2013 - premiered as a recording and short films: recorded at the Royal Academy of Music with students performing conducted by the composer. These recordings served as the basis for three short films filmed and edited by the composer over the course of two years in Switzerland, England, Scotland, Germany, France and Brazil.