Instrumentation
strings (3.3.3.2.1)
Availability
Score and parts available on hire
A version for string ensemble of 11 players is also available for hire.
Programme Notes
Chansons adapts songs by the early 15th Century composer Gilles Binchois, recorded in the MS Canon Misc. 213. The first song, amours merchi, is translated for an ensemble of 12 string instruments. The second, adieu, adieu, diffracts and collages Binchois’ exquisite descending lines in cascades, creating a sonorous recollection (a literal ‘re-membering’) of this song. The string ensemble is for this adaptation dispersed into three string quartets that augment and illuminate one another.
L.I.
Reviews
...beguiling...
The Times (Richard Morrison) 13 May 2024
...an exquisite miniature...
The Arts Desk (Rachel Halliburton) 13 May 2024
The effect was beautiful, the superbly controlled pianissimo playing sounding as if it came from a distance.
Limelight (Steve Moffat) 25 April 2026
Illean’s arrangements...bathed the forms of the past in a sense of mystery, spirituality and loss…Illean treated the first chanson…with delicate softness. In the second…the lower textures were taken even further into hushed meditative stasis, while high solo violin phrases cut through with penetrating sweetness…
Sydney Morning Herald (Peter McCallum) 24 April 2026