- Stuart MacRae
Sleep at the Feet of Daphne (1999)
- Novello & Co Ltd (World)
Commissioned by the BBC and the Friends of Eden Court Theatre, Inverness
- 3(pic)213(bcl)21/433(btbn)1/timp.perc/hp/str
- 13 min
Programme Note
The title of this piece comes from a passage in General Lew Wallace's book 'Ben-Hur: A tale of the Christ', which I was reading as I began work on it. The line comes at a point in the story when Ben-Hur is confronted with the futility of an existence at the Grove of Daphne at Antioch, an earthly paradise he passes through on his quest to find his lost mother and sister. The passage asks questions such as: what is 'peace without fear'? And 'love without law'?
This seems particularly pertinent in our time, when increasingly we must ask ourselves challenging questions in order to maintain the fragile balance of our complicated existence. And as this new millennium approached, many of us will have been re-evaluating the past, and trying to envisage the future. Bleak pictures will have been painted; bright hope nurtured.
I do not hold the millennium to be a significant date - a number, a religious construct, an accident. But I have come to appreciate its significance as a focal point - a referential date from which events telescope both backwards and (tentatively?) forwards.
The piece does not attempt to take a standpoint as to the passing of a century, or a millennium; nor does it look forwards with either hope or despair, though I have done all of these while I wrote it. As the artist Mark Rothko wrote: "It is really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of breathing and stretching one's arms again". Perhaps the new millennium gives us this opportunity. The piece does what it can do, says all it can say, and leaves speculation to the listener.
© Stuart Macrae
This seems particularly pertinent in our time, when increasingly we must ask ourselves challenging questions in order to maintain the fragile balance of our complicated existence. And as this new millennium approached, many of us will have been re-evaluating the past, and trying to envisage the future. Bleak pictures will have been painted; bright hope nurtured.
I do not hold the millennium to be a significant date - a number, a religious construct, an accident. But I have come to appreciate its significance as a focal point - a referential date from which events telescope both backwards and (tentatively?) forwards.
The piece does not attempt to take a standpoint as to the passing of a century, or a millennium; nor does it look forwards with either hope or despair, though I have done all of these while I wrote it. As the artist Mark Rothko wrote: "It is really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of breathing and stretching one's arms again". Perhaps the new millennium gives us this opportunity. The piece does what it can do, says all it can say, and leaves speculation to the listener.
© Stuart Macrae
Scores
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Reviews
"Stuart MacRae's millenium SSO commission, Sleep at the Feet of Daphne, full of powerful emotional restraint, highlights the preoccupation similar to MacMillan's in terms of experimentation."
2nd March 2004
MacRae's accomplished orchestral piece 'Sleep at the feet of Daphne' comes from Lew Wallace's 'Ben-Hur: A tale of the Christ'. A millennium commission, it engages the ear particularly with its initial primitive stirrings, ticking percussion, and distinctive use of high strings…'Sleep' is technically assured and imaginatively scored.
27th August 2002
By definition, music for the Millennium must be music of its time, and the music of our time places greater store by the expression of ideas and feelings and by musical structure than by pictorialism and melody. It doesn’t wash over you, it stimulates and provokes you; and the new orchestral work by the young Inverness composer Stuart MacRae did just that…as a monument to how music has developed in 2000 years, Sleep at the Feet of Daphne was apt and impressive, demonstrating the young composer’s breadth of vision and command of full-scale orchestral writing.
29th February 2000
"MacRae's Sleep at the Feet of Daphne, which takes its title from Lew Wallace's novel, Ben-Hur, was commissioned to mark the millenium, and he chose to do so with a rather dark, ambiguous, and questioning piece. The sombre, static harmonies of the opening section built considerable tension through a menacing crescendo before giving way to a more extended melodic line on the strings, set against chattering winds. The ambitious finale was intended to invoke infinity, and was dominated by a repeating figure in the strings, offset for a time by turbulent brass and percussion. The fluctuations in intensity and dynamics were skilfully handled, as was the orchestration in general..."
25th February 2000