Output details

13 Factories

This is an example of an original composition sharing new insights. It was commissioned by Ensemble Modern and Siemens Arts Program as part of the ‘Into…’ project, and has been performed by Ensemble Modern (world premiere, Berlin Konzerthaus), London Sinfonietta (UK premiere, Dec 2012, South Bank Centre), and the Talea Ensemble (US premiere, April 2013); it has also been broadcast by German Radio (Ensemble Modern performance) and recorded by London Sinfonietta (unreleased at the time of writing).

The researcher writes: “It was the seemingly most innocuous of images that stayed with me from my trip to [the Pearl River Delta] and ultimately provided me with the starting point for 13 Factories: A woman talking on her mobile phone on a crowded train; her hand cupped over the mouthpiece in an attempt to maintain her own privacy and respect the privacy of those around her. I also noticed it in people at restaurants – while using a toothpick with one hand, the other hand would come up to protect the mouth from view. Somehow this image took on a metaphorical significance for me – the mouth as a vehicle for self expression and the difficulty of making its individual voice heard in a place as densely populated as Hong Kong, Shenzhen or Guangzhou. I think of the sine tones in this piece as the tributaries of a river that wind their way between, around, over and under the thirteen members of the ensemble. A tension arises from the players’ attempts to project their individual voices with all their innate impurities onto the purity of the sine tones. By doing this in the simplest possible way they can hear the sound of their own voice.”