Jay Capperauld - Galvanic Dances | NYOS, Ryan Corbett & Catherine Larsen-Maguire

Описание: GALVANIC DANCES
Jay Capperauld

National Youth Orchestra of Scotland | www.nyos.co.uk
Accordion: Ryan Corbett
Conductor: Catherine Larsen-Maguire
Recording courtesy of Arte Concert.

ABOUT THE PIECE
Galvanic Dances is a concerto for accordion and orchestra, commissioned by the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland and inspired by the early pioneering electric experiments of Luigi Galvani in the 1700s. Galvani’s experiments focused on the re-animation of dead frogs’ legs which moved and twitched when applied with an electrical current. This new discovery led to significant questions about the source of life itself and whether death could, in reality, be prevented. The concerto is written in one continuous movement that re-imagines and re-tells the Frankenstein story in a set of infernal dances through the nightmarish image of a chorus-line of dancing dead frogs’ legs, as though Galvani’s morbid experiments have created a kind of musical Frankenstein's monster.

The accordion is shocked into animation by galvanising orchestral jolts which set in motion an unfolding narrative of high-drama and macabre tongue-in-cheek humour, with references to various musical dance forms, such as tango, waltz, jig and tarantella. All of this culminates in a direct quotation of the infamous Dies Irae Gregorian chant melody, which erupts and explodes at bar 666 in the score as an evocation of the infernal and grim elements that are at play in both Galvani’s experiments and Mary Shelley’s tale of Dr Frankenstein’s monster.

NYOS WEBSITE
To learn more about the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland, visit www.nyos.co.uk

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We are immensely grateful to The Richard Chester Creativity Fund and the Vaughan Williams Foundation, whose generous support made the commissioning of this piece possible.