Pantomime (2020)
for string orchestra // 9'
commissioned by the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra
Recorded live by 3MBS, Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, November 28 2021 by recording engineer Steve Bullock
For score and parts hire, email me
Performance history
November 25,28 2021
Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall
Melbourne Chamber Orchestra
Photo: Lucien Fischer 2021
About
Pantomime is inspired by the Tim Burton short story/poem The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy, a surreal tragicomic poem about a boy born half human half oyster; an oddity, he brings misery to his parents, and the bizarre sequence of events that lead to his demise, whilst darkly amusing, reflects classic Burton themes of finding humour and beauty in"otherness", of vulnerability and social exclusion.
Reviews
"Quirkily humorous, it is essentially a dark tale, musically rendered in a carefully constructed interweaving of motifs that the musicians demonstrated prior to performance. A narrator, the parents who wanted a girl and are totally oblivious to what was going on, Oyster Boy himself and his death – embodied in a high E-string note – followed a disturbing but ingenious musical trajectory."