Diana Cotoman: Carl Orff Competition 2018 Eurydice

Inspired by Antje Tesche-Mentzen’s sculptures, I composed this lied using the English translation of Rilke’s poem’s excerpt.

The work is for soprano, harp and frame drum. The harp’s part may be also played on a piano, with pedal throughout the piece.

It is written on a scale of eight notes (C, C sharp, D, E flat, F sharp, G, A flat, B), using solely those eight notes.

There is a contrast between the singer’s seemingly tonal melody and the darker, more mysterious and dissonant chords of the harp.

The rhythm corresponding to the initials of Carl Orff in Morse code appears frequently in the harp and frame drum’s parts and, fragments of it, also in the soprano’s.