If you want to perform a work, we ask that you purchase the score and parts at the CMC Shop.
To view and submit your loan, please click on My Loan Requests
Commissioned by Soundstreams' Emerging Composer
13 April, 2016, Alliance Francaise Theatre, Toronto Zorana Sadiq, soprano; Wesley Shen, piano; Daniel Morphy, percussion
Printed copies of this title are available from
. Please contact the publisher directly.
The scholar Hypatia (4th-5th century CE) became one of Alexandria’s most respected citizens and teachers. Her grisly murder – kidnapped, flayed, burned – stands symbolically alongside the burning of the great library at Alexandria. The Greek word ostrakios, used by Socrates Scholasticus to describe the murder-weapon, literally means “with or by oystershells,” but also means sharp, similarly shaped objects. Struck violently by scraps of broken tiles and pottery shards – fine and thin and lethally-edged as oystershells – flesh does flay. Both the text and the music explore a sing-song, sinister atmosphere – a delicate, bell-like klangfarbenmelodie that never quite settles; canon-like, it never quite aligns. The identity of the Sibyl-singer is unclear, and her storytelling is hypnotic, elusive: the images of the sea, the shells, and the ashes all mix together in an echoing, shimmering, uncanny music – something (to echo Shakespeare) “new and strange.” percussion: crotales (2 octaves); vibraphone; suspended cymbal also: waterfall shells, capiz shells (played by the singer)
Canadian Music Centre has been supporting, preserving and celebrating the works of Canadian composers since 1959. As proud and passionate advocates, we offer innovative resources for discovering, exploring, listening to and playing Canadian music online and in five regional hubs.