Leo Chadburn, The Indistinguishables
Instrumentation
String quartet and pre-recorded voices.
Duration: c.15 minutes | Written: 2014 | Commissioned by Quatuor Bozzini
Programme Note
The Indistinguishables comprises the spoken common names of seventy species of moth sighted in the UK, each accompanied by a fleeting soundtrack of a single chord or gesture: discrete musical objects, separated by a pause or silence.
The music unfolds through a sequence of harmonies, which frame categories of allusion in the "found poetry" of the moth names: the celestial, the supernatural, the macabre, the pastoral, the ephemeral...
The words are spoken by the actor Gemma Saunders.
Live Performances
- Quatuor Bozzini, 17 June 2014, Montreal
- Quatuor Bozzini, 25 November 2014, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
- Phaedra Ensemble, 18 October 2016, Brunel Museum, London
- Quatuor Bozzini, 12 March 2019, Milton Court, London
- Phaedra Ensemble, 7 March 2017, Café Oto, London
- Apartment House, 5 November 2019, Café Oto, London
Recording
Appears on the album Slower / Talker, performed by Quatuor Bozzini.
Broadcasts
- 15 April 2017, BBC Radio 3, Hear and Now
- 21 September 2019, BBC Radio 3, The New Music Show