Rebecca Saunders, Crimson (2005)
Recorded live at the Banff Center, Winter 2018
crimson / ́krImz(e)n/ adj. n. & v. –adj. of a rich deep red inclining to purple. –n. this colour. –v.tr. & intr. make or become crimson. Blood-red. (ME cremesin, crimesin, ult. F. Arab. kirmiziKERMES)The Concise Oxford Dictionary„...and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and... yes...“Molly Bloom’s closing monologue in James Joyce’s UlyssesI recently re-wrote and fused together two separate piano soli, written between 2002 and 2004, to bring to an end a time of intense preoccupation with a specific timbral palette of sounds for the piano. The contrasting material of the three movements share a similar „intention“, which I can only more closely define by referring to the colour “crimson”, hence the chosen quotations above.
Rebecca Saunders.