Garden of Thornless Roses
by Kate Moore
Herz Ensemble/ Stichting Magnolias for Ears
Performers:
Baritone: Arnout Lems
Harp: Michela Amici
Recorder: Susanna Borsch
Percussion: Meiyi Lee
Composer/ gamba: Kate Moore
Garden of Thornless Roses, is a major work reflecting the journey of a traveler as a metaphor for the evolution of the body and soul as it navigates through changing landscapes and weather. A new Winterreise marking the bicentenary of Schubert’s winter journey, is a song-cycle portraying a dialogue between a wanderer and nature. Nature’s expressive language is interpreted by the wanderer through the senses, emoting with nature through the rising waters of a flood, the smouldering landscape of a fire, the gathering winds of a storm, the falling stones and rocks from a cliff face. The wanderer is not separate from nature, but dissolves into nature where there is no longer a distinction between the two. Pointing to the notion of Eutierrianism, it is a reversal of the concept of Romanticism which portrays a lonely figure, small against the overwhelming incomprehensible landscape, contemplating the fruitlessness of existence and the inevitability of death. The new winter journey is returning the figure to nature itself, where the wanderer becomes nature, where death becomes rebirth and the cycle begins again as vegetation consumes ruined buildings and the stars above are reflected by the lights of deep-sea creatures below.
Short Excerpt:
Full Song Cycle:
