Song of Alma
Song of Alma is the first in a series of "songs" commissioned by the Argento Ensemble, which focuses on the role of memory in the compositional process, taking both the musical works and the life story of Alma Mahler as a starting point.
After writing some very successful pieces as a promising young student of Zemlinsky, Alma Mahler was obliged to stop composing by Gustav as a condition of their marriage. Once he discovered her affair with Walter Gropius, he regretted this decision, and encouraged Alma to compose, but she found it difficult to pick up her musical life where she had left off. As a female-identifying composer/sound artist, aspects of this story of obstructed ambition and attempted redemption seem familiar; these themes also resonate with the resurgence of the #metoo movement in 2017.
In 2018, I worked with the members of Ensemble Argento in developing this brief piece beginning the series, over the course of a residency in NYC. This residency culminated in a performance of this brief work for soprano, large ensemble and embedded electronics in the Moving Sounds Festival of the Austrian Cultural Center.
