Lisa Illean (b.1983) invites listeners “to immerse themselves in a world where near silence and stillness shape the very fabric of its sounds” (Gramophone).
An acre ringing, still
Meticulous use of non-tempered tunings imbues the UK-based Australian’s compositions with subtle harmonic colours, creating what The Sydney Morning Herald described as “exquisitely quiet shadows”. This half-light is cast over works like Tiding for electric guitar, performed by Yaron Deutsch at Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik and Time:Spans (New York), “ever-weaver” for cello and piano, premiered by Ensemble intercontemporain, and the panoramic gaze of “février” for clarinet, cello, and piano, premiered by Trio Catch at Festival Présences in 2020. “Sleeplessness…sails”, a dreamlike setting of Osip Mandelstam for mezzo-soprano and piano, was created for the 2018 BBC Proms.
The 2024 orchestral work “An acre ringing”, still takes its name from the Anglo-Saxon æcer, an “open field”. The “ringing, still” of the title plays on its double meaning of both resounding and encircling, reflecting the Australian-born composer’s rich imagination of musical time and space. In the 18-minute work, premiered by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, instrumental forces are divided into a chamber orchestra and a smaller consort, placed behind and playing with Illean’s characteristic non-tempered tunings, as well as a further layer of pre-recorded sounds, created in collaboration with Michael Acker (Experimentalstudio des SWR). Between these, traces of the past, glimpses of the future, and the slow turn of the present emerge, recede, and overlap.
“gentle transience”
The partially heard and obliquely perceived are key principles of Illean’s music, which manifests translucent and transparent textures, reflections, and a delicate play of light and shadow. Illean’s music, like water, is animated by surface tension. Timothy Munro notes the “gentle transience” of her work: “harmonies shift glacially, notes barely emerge, notes slide slowly, speeds imperceptibly change.”
Illean’s shimmering musical surfaces reflect her intense interest in the visual arts. Christine Baumgartner’s woodcut Deep Water was the creative foil for her “Tiding” series. “Tiding II (silentium)” for soprano saxophone, piano, percussion, and pre-recorded sounds, sees musical ideas rise to the surface through precisely calibrated rhythmic layers. The 17-minute piece premiered in 2021 with Trio Accanto at Donaueschinger Musiktage and made its UK debut at the 2023 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
“arcing, stilling, bending, gathering” (2023) – a 19-minute work for piano, string ensemble of 12 players and pre-recorded sounds – was partly inspired by Illean’s recollection of two films by Sergei Eisenstein, in which fleeting reflections appear on shop windows; Illean’s music elaborates these ideas of superimposed transparent layers that shift, blur and transform. In the piece, written for the Australian National Academy of Music and given its UK premiere by Britten Sinfonia in spring 2024, glacial chords and floating tapestries of sound mingle, with a constantly shifting sense of focus. The piece gave its name to a 2024 portrait disc released by NMC showcasing orchestral, ensemble and chamber works, including “A through-grown earth”, Illean’s setting of Gerard Manley-Hopkins for soprano Juliet Fraser and Explore Ensemble, which they have previously presented at November Music and TRANSIT Festival.
The disc concludes with “Land’s End” (2015), premiered by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and since championed by Brett Dean with the BBC Symphony and Adelaide Symphony. The 11-minute work is inspired by the Australian landscape of Illean’s upbringing. Its atmosphere is indebted to artist Vija Celmins: serial “redescriptions” of photographs in graphite, paint and ink. High, fragile strings glisten; brass mumble, muted; percussion barely touch their instruments. Its tranquillity opens a space for audiences in which the experience of the piece is to be found as much within the listener as the sounds that Illean has organised. The same landscape inspired 2017’s “Januaries” for ensemble, whose exponents have included the Philharmonia Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and London Sinfonietta.
Looking Ahead
On 25 October Cédric Tiberghien gives the world premiere of Lisa Illean’s “Sonata in ten parts” for piano at London’s Wigmore Hall. The new work, which will be around twenty minutes in length, is a companion piece to Beethoven’s “Diabelli Variations”. Each of its ten parts is an elaboration of moments – often just one or two bars – in the Beethoven, from which Illean expands new layers and patterns, drawing together disparate starting points to create a nocturnal atmosphere. Sonata in ten parts was commissioned by Wigmore Hall and is Illean’s first work for solo piano. Future projects include a third instalment in the “Tiding” series for Ensemble Nikel.
Benjamin Poore (Faber Music)
(from [t]akte 2/2024)