A-PPA-Aratus
for two percussionist and two pianists
(2019)
- Duration 24'
- Commission Koussevitzky Foundation and Miller Theatre co-commission
- Premiere February 21, 2019; Portrait concert at Miller Theatre, New York. Featuring the International Contemporary Ensemble and Yarn/Wire.
Program Notes
A-PPA-Aratus (2019) for two pianists, two percussionists and electronics, co-commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation of the Library of Congress and Miller Theatre, was premiered by Yarn/Wire in February 2019 at Wang Lu’s Composer Portrait at Miller Theatre. This work uses field recordings made in a textile factory outside the composer’s hometown, where several family members were laid off some twenty years ago and replaced by an automated assembly line. The repetitive clusters of various shapes are played throughout the piece to represent both weaving patterns and workers’ labor, sometimes affected by disability. The overwhelmingly cacophonic soundscape of low drums, ratchet, metals, and the piano’s extreme registers together with the noises of machines intensifies the listening experience while critiquing the damage wrought by relentless global capitalism.
– Wang Lu
Excerpt from the premiere, Miller theatre portrait concert by the International Contemporary Ensemble.