This unusual new work for speaking voice and portatif organ – called Wandteppiche – was commissioned by the Art Gallery of NSW Foundation and Music Curator Jason Catlett as part of Music in this Stillness, a new-music program to greet the six-panel French medieval tapestry suite La dame à la licorne as it begins its Sydney sojourn.
All the works make use of the portatif, inspired by the organ vividly depicted in the panel ‘Hearing’. In Wandteppiche (Wall Hangings), I’ve chosen words from Rilke’s novel Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge but it’s always spoken in the language of the audience. The words are from chapter 38, the protagonist Malte’s mesmeric description of the tapestries written for his absent aunt Abelone, with whom Malte is in love.
I’m grateful to Mssr. Philippe Platel, the French Cultural Attaché to Australia and organist and PhD candidate Grace Chan who are premiering the work in February 2018 for the Foundation’s members. Photographs by Benoît Deney and Jason Catlett. 
Update April 2018. The amazing percussionist-composer-keyboardist Bree van Reyk will perform Wandteppiche with me at Art After Hours on 9 May. See full program here.
The portatif organ being used was built by Ronald Sharp, on loan from the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. Read their article about this project and their portatif here.
