a stir among the stars, a making way (2019)
(for large ensemble)

a stir among the stars, a making way
for large ensemble (2019/2020)
based on Moult for orchestra
commissioned by Klangforum Wien
World Premiere March 2020 Konzerthaus, Vienna

One of the biggest inspirations for my work is the Irish poet Dorothy Molloy, whose words have given my plays their titles since 2014. Reading her three small volumes of poetry, I always had the same sensation: being in a closed room where the air is made of dust. At first you can't move, can't see anything beyond the darkness. Then your eyes gradually adjust to the darkness and begin to see all the different particles of air, the subtle hues, and how a tentative ray of light can change our perspective on a seemingly motionless world.

a stir among the stars, a making way is based on my orchestral piece Moult and the fascination and analysis of the moulting process in spiders. When a spider moults, it sheds its exoskeleton, renews itself and leaves a material imprint of its body - it climbs out of the ghost or shadow of its own form. The double temporality of the animal and its shed shell fascinate me: they confront us with a physical trace of the past within the movement of the present, a vision of the self split across time. I like this image in relation to my thinking about form and time. Because I asked myself how I could realise a composition with multiple temporalities; different sonic layers that have different speeds and different dimensions of size.

© Clara Iannotta