The Orator (opus 84 nr 2)

Programme notes

In this duo concertante for two violins and electronics, the instruments impersonate both the orator and the crowd during an electoral rally. The two violins are each other's alter ego. The electronics are the shadow of their double. The whirl of scales expresses as much the inner awe of the orator about to address the crowd as the indistinct noise of thousands of waiting women and men. The crowd swells and surges. The crowd grows impatient. At last the orator clears his throat and starts his address. What ensues is a dynamic between speaker and listeners. The speaker is in turn emphatic, eloquent, rhetorical, calm and optimistic. The listeners hammer a slogan of two crochets followed by two quavers, in turn gloomy, threatening, defying, persistent, enthusiast, impassioned. At the end of the speech, both the orator and the crowd unanimously voice one last time their slogan.

Completion of the composition 

19-XII-2011 

Score

see score after opus 84 nr 1

Programme booklet of the premiere

see Music from the Heart: special project (2012) under Articles

Recording

link #2 audio of the premiere

Score follower

link #1

Review

"The work suggests a courting between a politician and his electorate audience, how one needs and feeds off the other, and vice versa"

Chang Tou Liang, Singapore