Shadows of Light II (Music from the Seagram Murals)

Shadows of Light II (Music from the Seagram Murals) After Mark Rothko, by Jim Aitchison

A new version of music commissioned from the composer by Tate for the 2008–2009 Mark Rothko exhibition at ��, supported by the PRSF Foundation for New Music and Henry Tillman and Jill Bradford.

Performed by Nicholas Clapton (countertenor), Michael Thompson (horn) and the Kreutzer Quartet. Sound courtesy of Jonathan Haskell (Astounding Sounds)

I. Opening (adapted from Dante)

A way through me,
To go, to be lost.
Through me, a route to loss, endlessly elaborated,
A way fashioned, not to return.
My maker is love.

Darkened lids lifted; those that lie inside
Shine iron-red, unguarded, on your ascent from this sight.

From black air out to sapphire:
Four stars radiate to no one (but the first of us).
Voids receive and flicker.

II. Autumn (adapted from Rilke)

Leaves descend, falling from a higher frame
Of collapsing forests far beyond the dome of blue.
They fall, emptying out in disbelief.
The night-burdened Earth runs in iron trails down from countless stars.
We all sicken, fall and render away,
This hand surges but veils to nothing.
Who is there, to gather, at the root?

III. Closing (adapted from Dante)

A way through me,
To go, to be lost.
Through me, a route to loss, endlessly elaborated,
A way fashioned, not to return.
My maker is love.

Darkened lids lifted; those that lie inside
Shine iron-red, unguarded, on your ascent from this sight.

From black air out to sapphire:
Four stars radiate to no one (but the first of us).
Voids receive and flicker.

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