extenglishassignment

[extenglishassignment]

Just as Thien uses the structures of western music to play around with form in her novel, I wanted to utilise the concept of music as a structural motif, choosing Berlioz’s Requim due to its similarities to Glenn Gould’s own recording of Bach: The Goldberg Variations (recorded in 1955 and 1981), where Berlioz also revises his work twice (1852 and 1867). I wanted to utilise the structure of this Requim to foreshadow the ending of my piece, following the changing tempo and specifically drawing on the apocalyptic Dies irae, which I imagine as a theme song for Day of the Triffids.   The Minister of the Interior of France, Adrien de Gasparian asked Berlioz to compose a large orchestral work; a Requim to commemorate soldiers who were killed in the French Revolution 1830 however, like Sparrow he was unable to have his work performed until a later date. He once stated "if I were threatened with the destruction of the whole of my works save one, I should crave mercy for the Messe des morts” which I think encapsulates the struggle of the palimpsestic nature history and the threat of being censored, but also the simple joy of music as an escape which I mirror in my piece “Focuses on the rising and falling of his chest and listens to the second movement as it begins.”