Ferneyhough: Funérailles I [w/ score - 1/2]

Brian Ferneyhough's "Funérailles I" (1977) for strings and harp, with the score. Part 1 of 2. Apologies if the transitions are off -- if so I'll correct this soon.

"Funérailles: obsequies; solemn, ritualistic celebrations of mourning.

The seeming incongruity obtaining between the associations prompted by the title and the actual emotional world of the composition itself might perhaps be seen as bordering on the deliberately perverse; neither the theatrical superstructure nor the elaborately circumscribed symbolism characteristic of public events of this type have been incorporated here. It was, however, by no means my intention to create an ironic distortion of these diverse connotations: rather, I was aiming at channeling the entire associative complex into an imaginary - a mythic - dimension. A rite taking place behind a curtain, or in the far distance.

With this aim in mind I chose an instrumentation and repertoire of articulative techniques which serve to underline this particular quality. The strings play mostly "con sordino", or else in restrained harmonics; all instruments are treated in a reservedd way, albeit with almost neurotic emphasis of detail in respect of individual articulation. The microscopically fastidious textures resulting from this treatment prevent the material from breaking out of its essentially claustrophobic conceptual frame: the most that is ever reached is a sort of breathless frenzy which serves, in the final analysis, merely to underline the powerful constraints which the language of ritual generally imposes upon the sensibility of the participating individual.

Version I of Funérailles, commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture, was first performed by Ensemble 2E2M conducted by Paul Méfano during the Saintes Festival of 1977."

--Brian Ferneyhough

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Music

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• brian
• ferneyhough
• funérailles
• funerailles

[ItsAnArtisticMonkey]

what an intense piece!

[markzemusic]

Great! I love Ferneyhough's music.

[johnstrieder]

Thank you very much - I love this piece.