Liza Lim: Photograph: Astrid Ackermann
Weaver of worlds Interview : Abi Bliss
The Australian composer unravels the knotty magic of her two new hcmf// premieres From the violence of desire in her sensuous and visceral 2008 opera The Navigator, to the symbolic power of languages celebrated in 2005's Mother Tongue, and the veiled glimpses beyond this world in her several works exploring the Aboriginal concept of 'shimmer', Liza Lim's music provides rich food for the imagination. Currently the director of the University of Huddersfield's Centre for Research in New Music, the Australianborn composer has three works featured at this year's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. On Sunday 23 November, Cikada Ensemble present two pieces, including the UK premiere of Winding Bodies: 3 Knots. And the Arditti Quartet @ 40 concert on Saturday 29 November includes another premiere to become entangled in, with the first British performance of The Weaver's Knot.
Images of the erotic desire of the lover for the beloved, of being drunk in the tavern and being bewildered or lost in ecstasy are at the same time expressions of an experience of divine and spiritual transcendence hcmf//: The two new works of yours featured at hcmf// 2014 both explore the imagery, symbolism and structure of knots. What fascinates you about these? Liza Lim: Knots are one of our oldest technologies for binding materials together and I was intrigued by the ways in which they've also been used to bind much more ephemeral things. One thinks of the knot tied in the handkerchief to help you remember something - an example of really early off-board memory storage! - and there are examples from cultures all over the world of knots used in spells to enchant a lover or to curse an enemy. hcmf//: What common threads are there between the two pieces? LL: In Winding Bodies: 3 Knots, written for the Norwegian ensemble, Cikada, the three knots of the title comes from a
Nordic tale of sailors buying the wind from witches or sorcerers. The wind was sold as a rope tied in three knots: untying the first knot would result in a breeze, the second would give a strong wind and the third, which should never be untied, contained a hurricane. So the knotting provides the ritual action used to contain and concentrate an intention or desire to control the elements. Both Winding Bodies and The Weaver's Knot explore different ways of ritualising repetitive and looping actions as well as effects of friction on tensile materials - hair, string, a column of air. At the end of Winding Bodies the musicians are asked to play some fragments recalled from what they have previously played; in a way, the 'material' of that part of the piece is the 'memory work' of the players. The musical composition expands via an experience filtered through the musicians' bodies that is offered to the audience. Though you might say that that is what all performance is anyway!
Liza Lim: Weaver of worlds
Photograph: Klaus Rudolf
hcmf//: Also featured in Cikada's concert, The Heart's Ear is an early example of your interest in Sufi poetry, something heard again more recently in your song-cycle Tongue of the Invisible. What do you love about these writers? LL: The work of Sufi mystics Hafez and Rumi have been a huge inspiration for me - the way in which the poetic language expresses earthy, sensuous and spiritual ideas is fantastically direct and also evocative and complex. Images of the erotic desire of the lover for the beloved, of being drunk in the tavern and being bewildered or lost in ecstasy are at the same time expressions of an experience of divine and spiritual transcendence. hcmf//: Aspects of The Weaver's Knot are inspired by the hardanger fiddle and its distinctive playing style. What do you find rewarding about the instrument? LL: The hardanger fiddle is an extremely beautiful instrument: it's really like a magical being with its carved dragonhead scroll and inlaid mother-of-pearl designs and resonance strings that create a shimmering aura around every sound it makes. Traditionally it was used in dance music with lots of open string drones and curlicues of rhythmic patterns - the church of course tried to ban it as the 'work of the devil'. Nevertheless it's had various revival movements and being used a bit more now by contemporary composers - not only Norwegians like Lars Peter Hagen but also by Monty Adkins in his major piece for hardanger fiddle, Spiral Path which will be played by Britt Pernille Frøholm later in the festival.
hcmf//: What individual qualities do you enjoy about writing for Cikada and the Arditti Quartet? LL: I first met the Arditti String Quartet when they played a piece of mine, Pompes Funèbres, at the 1988 ISCM Festival in Hong Kong. Coincidentally I also met [Cikada conductor] Christian Eggen and [artistic director] Kenneth Karlsson at the same festival so the associations go back a way, though this is the first time I've written for the Cikada ensemble. One thing I enjoy about working with both ensembles is the sense of open possibility - there are no restrictions on what one can write. hcmf//: What projects are you looking forward to in 2015? LL: For 2015 I'm writing a violin concerto commissioned by Ensemble Contrechamps and violinist Daniel Hope. The project that has occupied me since 2011 is a new opera, Tree of Codes, which will be premiered by Ensemble MusikFabrik at the Cologne Opera in January 2016. It's based on Jonathan Safran Foer's book where he's 'cut out' a new story from existing stories by the Polish writer Bruno Schulz. The opera inhabits a magical world where the boundaries between humans, animals, the environment and veil that separates life and death are dissolving - it's about communication between worlds, between the living and the dead, folly, beauty and so on.
Liza Lim @ Sunday 23 November
2014 | Cikada Ensemble
Saturday 29 November | Arditti Quartet @ 40
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Fri 21 - Sun 30 November 2014