City of Falling Angels
General Info
Year of Published: 2006
Publisher: Ricordi
Difficulty: Advanced
Duration: 00:17:00
ISMN: 979-0-2042-4705-9
Cost: $84.95
Movement
Movement 1: Miranda Visione
Movement 2: The Winged One
Instrumentation
Player 1: Vibraphone 1
Player 2: Marimba 1 & Chinese Woodblock (High)
Player 3: Xylorimba
Player 4: Marimba 2
Player 5: Vibraphone 2
Player 6: Crash Cymbal (High) & Temple Blocks & Crotales & Steel Drum (Soprano)
Player 7: Ride Cymbal (Medium) & Temple Blocks & Crotales & Tuned Cowbells
Player 8: Chinese Cymbal (High) & Ride Cymbal (Medium High) & Crash Cymbal (Medium) & Sizzle Cymbal (Low) & Snare Drum & Bongos & 4 Concert Tom toms
Player 9: Chinese Cymbal (Medium High) & Ride Cymbal (High) & Crash Cymbal (Medium) & Sizzle Cymbal (Medium) & Snare Drum & Bongos & 6 Concert Tom toms & Concert Bass Drum
Player 10: Chinese Cymbal (Medium) & Ride Cymbal (Low) & Crash Cymbal (Medium) & Chimes & Gong Plates & Tam-tam (High)
Player 11: Timpani & Concert Bass Drum & Tam-tam
Player 12: Chinese Cymbal (Low) & Ride Cymbal (Medium) & Crash Cymbal (Medium Low) & Chimes & Gongs & Tam-tam (Medium)
Description
Commissioned by Lucerne Festival for the Lucerne Festival Academy. Premiered by the Lucerne Festival Percussion Group, September 2007. This work was inspired by the city of Venice. It is scored for a large array of instruments.
Program Notes
Liza Lim’s original programme note for City of Falling Angels features the following Walter Benjamin quote:
”This is how one pictures the Angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet.”
This remix aims to be an electroacoustic recreation of this vivid image. The opening impact is the single catastrophe perceived by the Angel and from the tail of the opening impact the wreckage builds. Individual sounds burst into prominence before forming part of the underlying texture, creating a tempestuous force that hurtles towards the present.
Recent Performance
Works for Percussion by this Composer
City of Falling Angels - Percussion Ensemble