Corpus Cum Figuris is a uniform composition in three major parts. The first part is a slow marche funébre a kind of prologue with dark and sombre sounds and a massive wall of chords which leads us to the other part of the works where the static and solemn atmosphere is suddenly stopped and replaced by a rhythmic/melodic ritual which accelerates the music. In the third part the block structure is softened gradually different figurations and stylistic elements arise to live their own lives: distant waltzes and pictures from the Middle Ages appear in this gigantic sonorous body. After a wild percussion orgy a short flash-back and a scream from the edge end Corpus cumFiguris. The piece has no literal content at all even though the title leads the thought to Adrian Leverkühn?s Apocalipsis cum Figuris from Thomas Mann?s Doctor Faustus. More likely my piece will arouse associations as with all my music. It has to be heard in it?s own conditions in this case as a big body of music or perhaps as a great screen where the details of course are part of the whole body but at the same time are foreign and odd. It is as if one climbs a mountain and from the top of that mountain discovers a world which is completely different from expected. Corpus cum Figuris for 20 musicians was composed in 1984 commissioned by Ensemble InterContemporain and the Danish Radio. Ensemble InterContemporain world premiered the work in April 1985 conducted by Peter Eötvös. The piece was also played at the ISCM-festival in Amsterdam by Netherland Radio Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ernest Bour.

This piece lasts about 12 minutes and it plays continuously although it is made up of 16 small movements. Throughout the four string players form a group: sometimes the clarinet is caught up with them but more often it is like a person pursuing an independent train of thought: sometimes talking to itself sometimes conversational sometimes singingThe starting point for my Quintet was Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities: like the book my piece is composed from many small contrasting ideas that are constantly transforming some coming to the fore as others recede. This quintet is dedicated to Hugh Sargent who commissioned it.

There are three mysteries about this piece by Purcell originally scored for Viols. When it was written for what purpose it was written and why the eccentric title ‘Chacony’ rather than the French ‘chaconne’ are questions whoseanswers are all shrouded in the mists of time. The suggested dates of early 1680’s and as a piece of light music for some sort of theatrical performance almost answer two of the three questions. The Chacony is scored here forString quartet but could be played by a larger ensemble.