Australia's international contemporary music ensemble
Liza Lim
Liza Lim
The musicians of ELISION have been my most important artistic partners over 32 years ever since I conducted a work of mine, ‘Blaze’ (1986), written for the countertenor Andrew Muscat Clarke and an ensemble of 6 musicians, at ELISION’s second ever concert at Trinity College Chapel in Melbourne. I soon left the conducting to professionals but my compositional ears and mind and heart have grown in very large part due to many significant collaborations with the group starting with ‘Garden of Earthly Desire’ (1988), a 30 minute work for Handspan Puppet Theatre and 11 musicians in which I responded to Hieronymus Bosch’s vision of a whole world of arcane weirdness and propositions for life and the life of the spirit.
Scene from Liza Lim’s ‘The Oresteia’ with Andrew Muscat Clarke (counter-tenor), directed by Barrie Kosky, ELISION & Treason of Images at Melbourne’s Theatreworks, 1993
That work subsequently toured Europe setting off a train of reverberations that were vitally important to the formation of a career path (unforeseen at the time). These included being taken up by the Italian publishing house Casa Ricordi, connections to the WDR in Cologne and also to the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. An aesthetic world was also established in that first commission in which the timbral richness of the ‘cello as played by Rosanne Hunt, matched by Daryl Buckley’s sumptuous electric guitar, and a complex polyphonic language of struck and plucked sounds (Peter Neville, Stephen Morey and Marshall McGuire!) against sustained fluttering sliding tones (Paula Rae on flute, Stephen Robinson on oboe, Jane Robertson on clarinet) continue to be a reference point.
Deborah Kayser as Chang-O onstage at the Hebbel Theatre, Berlin for the German premiere of Liza Lim’s opera ‘Moon Spirit Feasting’; librettist Beth Yahp, director Michael Kantor & ELISION Ensemble
The expanded sense of possibility activated by realising a long-form work such as this early on, led us to then collaborate on many other large-scale projects: 3 operas – ‘The Oresteia’ (1991-93), ‘Yuè Lìng Jié/ Moon Spirit Feasting’ (2000) and ‘The Navigator’ (2007), and several all-night installation works made together with the artist Domenico de Clario including the ‘Bardo’i-thos-grol’ 7-night cycle (1995-96) which involved musicians mediating and improvising. Where would I be without my soul sister, the soprano Deborah Kayser! and my spirit animal, the clarinettist, singer & conductor Carl Rosman! And then there have been works such as the song cycle ‘Mother Tongue’ (2005) with poems by Patricia Sykes, and more recently ‘How Forests Think’ (2016) which featured the sheng master, Wu Wei. In between all this ensemble activity, there were many, many solo pieces (listen to Tristram Williams playing Roda – the living circle (2017), Satsuki Odamura playing Burning House (2005), and dinners and drinking in interesting locations – a life in music! – Liza Lim
Andrew Watts on the poster for the 2009 Moscow season of The Navigator opera; Chekhov International Theatre Festival, composer Liza Lim, librettist Patricia Sykes, director Barrie Kosky & ELISION Ensemble.Poster: 2002 Japanese season of Moon Spirit Feasting at Saitama Arts Centre, Tokyo
Works by Liza Lim
written for and premiered by ELISION and its musicians:
Garden of Earthly Desire (1988-89)
for flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet, mandolin, electric guitar, harp, percussion, violin, viola, violoncello, double bass
The Oresteia (1991-93) Memory theatre (opera)
for 6 singers, 11 instrumentalists and dancer
Libretto by Liza Lim after Tony Harrison & Sappho
for soprano, 2 mezzo soprano (mezzo soprano 2 also plays stage ‘cello), counter tenor, tenor, baritone & dancer (also vocalising)
flute/ piccolo, oboe/ cor anglais, clarinet/ bass clarinet, trumpet/ piccolo trumpet, trombone, Turkish baglama saz, electric guitar, percussion, viola/ viola d’amore, cello, double bass
Amulet (1992) for viola solo
Koto (1993)
Text by Bokukei
for flute/piccolo, oboe d’amore, flugelhorn, koto, viola, 2 violoncello, percussion
Afterward: From a Tower (a translation) (1994)
7 night Easter vigil with 4 voices and sound installation with light installation by artist Domenico de Clario
Bardo’-i-thos-grol (The Tibetan Book of the Dead) (1994 & 1995)
7-night performance cycle with installation by Domenico de Clario and improvisers of ELISION
Burning House (1995)
Poems and diary entry by Izumi Shikibu
for koto and voice (1 performer)
The Cauldron – Fusion of the 5 Elements (1996)
2-part meditation from sunset to sunrise at the Spring and Autumn Equinox
for seven performers with installation by Domenico de Clario
Inguz (Fertility) (1996) for clarinet in A and violoncello
Yuè Lìng Jié (Moon Spirit Feasting) (1997-99)
A Chinese ritual street opera in 7 parts
Libretto by Beth Yahp for 3 singers, 9 instrumentalists and live electronics
soprano, mezzo soprano, high baritone, flute/ piccolo/ bass flute, clarinet/ bass clarinet, alto/ baritone/ bass saxophone, trumpet/ flugelhorn, 2 percussion, koto, er-hu, violoncello
Sixteen touches of the zither (1999)
for solo koto as part of Sonorous Body (1999)
video installation by artist Judith Wright with Satsuki Odamura (koto)
Glasshouse Mountains (2005)
video, floor sculptures, paintings, sound installation and performance with artist Judy Watson, Rosanne Hunt (‘cello) and Michael Hewes (sound design)
Weaver of fictions (2007) for alto Ganassi recorder
The long forgetting (2007) for tenor Ganassi recorder
Sensorium (2007) version of Scene 2 of The Navigator
Libretto by Patricia Sykes
for soprano, counter tenor, tenor Ganassi/ Paetzold contrabass recorder, Baroque triple harp, viola d’amore
The Navigator (2007-08)
Opera for 5 singers, 16 instrumentalists and electronics
Libretto by Patricia Sykes
for soprano, mezzo soprano, countertenor, baritone, bass-baritone
alto Ganassi/ tenor Ganassi/ Paetzold contrabass recorder, Baroque triple Harp, viola d’amore, flute/ piccolo, oboe/ cor anglaise, clarinet/ bass clarinet/ contrabass clarinet, bassoon/ contrabassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone/ alto trombone, percussion, electric guitar, violin, 2 violoncello, double bass, electronics
Well of Dreams (2008) for alto trombone [only playable as part of ‘TON’]
Sonorous Body (2008) for clarinet
TON (2008)
‘scena’ for mobile sculptures, audience and musicians
Collaboration with Sabrina Hoelzer (director), Volker Maerz (artist)
for alto Ganassi/ tenor Ganassi recorders, clarinet, trumpet, alto trombone
Invisibility (2009) for violoncello with two bows
an ocean beyond earth (2016) for solo violoncello
[prepared with thread & violin]