Duration: 19 minutes | Composed: 2015 (Inventi Ensemble, Melbourne Australia) | World Premiere: Bendigo International Festival of Experimental Music, Sept. 2015) | Recording: Performance by Inventi Ensemble - Melissa Doecke (flute), Ben Opie (Oboe). Winner of the Left Coast Ensemble Composition Prize 2016.

SCORE SAMPLE

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PURCHASE

Originally inspired by Italo Calvino’s Difficult Loves, this work explores several different facets of the fascinating yet grisly tale “The House of the Beehives”. I won’t reveal much about the story here except for that I’ve grouped the tale into four thematic areas, the first of which returns at the end, full circle:

I – Hermit (chorale)
II – Bees (toccata)
III – Into the Woods (the wall)
IV – The Encounter …to see the terror and shame in her eyes
V – The Hermit (Like a sinking memory-go-round)

The result is a prickly, pagan-esk unfolding that begins with the opening chorale theme, and slowly sinks into an uncertain world that wavers somewhere in between the lost and the found --- unmasking the central character as an alienated but profoundly content human being.