Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Giya Kancheli
Music for the Living (1983)
- G Schirmer Inc (USA, Canada and Mexico only)
Available in the USA, Canada and Mexico only
- 3(2pic)+afl(pic).3.3.2+cbn/6441/timp.perc/hp.pf.hpd.bgtr.perc stage banda.tape/str
- SATB chorus, boys choir (treble choir); ballet soloists, dancers
- 2 Sopranos [1=Mezzo soprano], 3 Tenors, boy treble, Bass, non-speaking actor, dancer
- 1 hr 40 min
Programme Note
Synopsis:
Music for the Living is an allegorical depiction of the physical and moral destruction of war. In Act I, a chorus of young homeless children sing a beautiful melody taught to them by a blind old man on a violin. But a bombastic military band enters, led by a trigger-happy officer. The power of the children’s incantation is more powerful than the military music, but a woman with a whip appears and using violence, finds recruits amongst the children. In Act II, a stylised version of a Romantic heroic opera is performed in a military hospital. As the piece is over, the hospital is hit by a bomb. The old man reappears and muses on the boundaries between real life and art.
Music for the Living is an allegorical depiction of the physical and moral destruction of war. In Act I, a chorus of young homeless children sing a beautiful melody taught to them by a blind old man on a violin. But a bombastic military band enters, led by a trigger-happy officer. The power of the children’s incantation is more powerful than the military music, but a woman with a whip appears and using violence, finds recruits amongst the children. In Act II, a stylised version of a Romantic heroic opera is performed in a military hospital. As the piece is over, the hospital is hit by a bomb. The old man reappears and muses on the boundaries between real life and art.