Book of the Underworld 2013

bassoon

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Commissioned for The British Museum and first performed on the 5th July 2013 at the museum by the composer.

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Duration 5mins | Difficulty Professional | Scoring solo bassoon

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Programme Note

This piece was inspired by the Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II which is on display at the British Museum. The Title The Book of the Underworld refers to the hieroglyphs that cover the sarcophagus depicting several sections of the funerary text known as the Amduat, or 'Book of what is in the Underworld'.

 

To create this composition, I used a selection of hieroglyphs and translated them into small musical cells. These snippets of music are added one by one to create a large coherent structure, just as the hieroglyphs are added together to form the funerary text.  

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