The City in the Sea

by Matthew Whittall

for alto flute, viola and harp

Description

This
piece takes its title from the eponymous poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
Although I’d originally intended to keep my distance expressively from
his Gothic world, Poe’s central image – a decaying city in the dimming
West ruled by death, slowly sinking into watery oblivion – was a
powerful one. Perhaps inevitably, the piece took on shades of the
slow-motion humanitarian disaster unfolding on Europe’s southern shores,
bringing out undertones of desperation, pursuit, obsessive, elegiac
reflection, and ultimately despair as it slides into the depths.

The piece opens with a long, halting solo for the viola, its
breath-like tones slowly becoming a descending lament. The alto flute
joins in, their sinuous lines writhing around and through static chords
in the harp, much like a prominent image in the poem:

“…light from out the lurid sea

Streams up the turrets silently[…]
Up many and many a marvelous shrine

Whose wreathëd friezes intertwine

The viol, the violet and the vine.”

From this contained opening, the music grows into a frenzied chase, a
gently rocking, lullaby-like dance, and finally a dirge-like
procession. The end grows increasingly violent, using harsh extended
techniques on the instruments, tearing at them, as if to give vent to
the latent fury underlying the music’s grieving tone.

Instrumentation

afl, vla, hp

Category

Chamber Works

Commisioned by / dedications

Commissioned by the Finnish Viola Society for the 2017 Tampere National Viola Competition.

+ Add information