Brian Ferneyhough: Cassandra's Dream Song [with score]

Ferneyhough's remarkable solo flute piece "Cassandra's Dream Song", written in 1970 and performed here by Kolbeinn Bjarnason. In this piece, the performer is presented with two sheets of fragments: on the 1st of these, you have nos. 1-6 and on the 2nd you have A, B, C, D & E. The performer is to play a fragment from sheet 1 followed by one from sheet 2; however, whereas sheet 1 has to be played linearly, the lettered fragments are up to the performer to interpret. Actually this is explained far, far better in Ferney's program notes, which can be seen at the start of the video.

Since this was published by CF Peters in 1975, I'm assuming Ferneyhough has either presented a corrected version of the score or a revised edition, as there is a section before the B fragment in this recording which doesn't correspond to anything in the score. I edited this out to avoid confusion ... ignore 5:26 -- 5:30, because apparently either iMovie or Youtube decided to do what it wanted in the end (yes, clearly I am the infallible one).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• brian
• ferneyhough
• flute
• kolbeinn
• bjarnason
• cassandra's
• dream
• song
• unity
• capsule
• mnemosyne
• new
• complexity

[MINORSECONDXXI]

@MINORSECONDXXI Oh, I meant half-flat.

[qweuio]

@MINORSECONDXXI Oh thanks for your reply. And I just noticed the explanation at 0:07. My bad.

[MINORSECONDXXI]

Note how this piece uses the first A above middle C a lot.

[MINORSECONDXXI]

@qweuio It's a halflat. It's a microtonal accidental.

[qweuio]

what's up with that flat in the mirror?

[nneef10]

7:34-8:18

[shipitintheremate]

words cannot describe how this piece affects me internally. Its creative brilliance is of the highest levels of human comprehension.

[TheRiteOfWinter]

Well, its great reading the score... its the only piece Ive heard from Ferneyhough but I heard it a long time ago when I was barely jumping outside of romanticism, so it first made an impression on me as unlistenable and then listenable as point music and now not all that different from romantic music. So its one of my favorites now...

[MisterAlbertoPiano]

Beautifull man. No words!!

[fightinboner]

oh my god