An Elemental Thing

Liza Lim

General Info

Year of Published: 2017
Duration: 00:15:00

Instrumentation

Wood Block

Program Notes

The woodblock has a mouth. Lim’s piece An Elemental Thing (2017) opens with the musician using a double bass bow to brush the surface of a woodblock to create breathing sounds. Later, moans emanate from the wood as a child’s rubber ball is skidded across the surface; then the sounds intensify into strange cries with the application of a tiny, buzzing ‘bullet’ vibrator. Over the course of a 15-minute piece, that simplest of percussion instruments, a hollow block of wood, turns out to be capable of an operatic expressivity.

Sometimes, instruments and performers suggest possibilities only half-imagined by the composer. Percussionist Eugene Ughetti, Lim’s collaborator on the piece, discovered that by variously sliding fingers, hand and arm across the opening, one can produce wa-wa sounds (like a brass instrument). This discovery of the woodblock’s capacity for vocal-like modulation led Lim to introduce a text into the piece – a section of Eliot Weinberger’s book of essays, also titled An Elemental Thing, which speculates on the nature of stars. This text is not spoken, but guides phonemic shapings of sounds, with the percussionist’s hand and fingers acting as surrogate lips and tongue to the woodblock’s mouth.

Premiere Detail

Date: 23 September 2017
Place: Queensland Conservatorium of Music

Works for Percussion by this Composer

Percussion Solo

An Elemental Thing - Wood Block
Love Letter - Hand Drum

Percussion Ensemble

Anactoria - Percussion Sextet
City of Falling Angels - Percussion 12

With Other Instruments

Chang-O - Percussion and Baritone
Ming Qi (Bright Vessel) - Percussion and Oboe
Shimmer Songs - Percussion Trio and String Quintet
Spirit Weapons - Percussion Trio, Cello, Contrabass Clarinet