Xu, Shuya (1961)

Category / Instrument : sheng (Chinese mouth organ) and string quartet
Genre : Contemporary
Sortiment : Score
Number of pages : 11

My first score of In Nomine, for alto flute in G, violin, viola, cello and claves, makes use of an English renaissance tradition overlooked since the time of Purcell, which is to compose a "fantasy" based on the melodic structure of the words In Nomine Domini from Benedictus from the Gloria tibi Domine Mass by John Taverner (v.1490-1575).

Ensemble Recherche initiated the first chapter of In Nomine in 1999 at Witten, with another chapter of this concert fantasy added during the thirtieth season of the Autumn Festival in Paris. For this program, 14 composers were asked to compose on the theme In Nomine (Mark André, Hugues Dufourt, Brian Ferneyhough, Georg-Friedrich Haas, Toshio Hosokawa, György Kurtág, Isabel Mundry, Brice Pauset, Gérard Pesson, Mathias Pintscher, Emilio Pomarico, Wolfgang Rihm, Salvatore Sciarrino, Xu Shuya).

The present score, a continuation of this idea for me, was commissioned by the 01 Ensemble and written for sheng, the traditional Chinese instrument, and string quartet. Two cultures are present in this music. In 2006, Wu Wei and the 01 Ensemble gave the world premier in Germany.