Works for string ensemble by Tom Coult and Lisa Illean will appear as part of Scottish Ensemble’s Concerts for a Summer’s Night tour (9-16 June). The programme features Coult’s Prelude (after Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe) and Illean’s arrangement of two Chansons by Gilles Binchois; it receives six performances across Scotland.
Coult’s 5½-minute piece for lower strings is a reworking of the Prelude from the E minor suite for Viol by the 17th-century composer and violist Jean de Sainte-Colombe, whose life was dramatized by Alain Corneau in his 1991 film Tous les matins du monde. Coult refracts the spare lines for solo viol through a dark-hued ensemble of five lower strings (2 violas, 2 cellos, and double bass): implied harmonies are made audible, new ones added, and everything is made thicker and richer. Coult’s melodic embellishments and decorations, as well as irregular rhythmic inflections, are used to capture, he says, “some of the liquid freedom that can lift music of this period off the page”.
In May 2024 the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Richard Tognetti gave the Australian premiere of the Prelude, which was commissioned by Festival Musikdorf Ernen and premiered in 2022 as part of Coult’s residency there. It received its UK premiere from 12 Ensemble at Wigmore Hall in February 2025 – watch their performance here.
Chansons are Illean's reworking of two songs by Gilles Binchois for 12 strings: Amours merchi and Adieu, adieu, mon joileux souvenir. Her arrangement diffracts and collages Binchois’ exquisite descending lines in cascades, creating a sonorous recollection (a literal ‘re-membering’) of the songs. The string ensemble for her adaptation is dispersed into three string quartets that augment and illuminate one another.
The Chansons premiered alongside the UK debut of Illean’s arcing, stilling, bending, gathering with Britten Sinfonia at Milton Court in May 2024. In September 2025 the second of the Chansons will be choreographed by Raewyn Hill as part of IN THE SHADOW OF TIME, a collaboration with Australian Chamber Orchestra and Co3 contemporary dance company at Perth’s Liberty Theatre, where it receives four performances before a regional tour. The piece for five dancers, who move on a rotating stage, is inspired by the precision of a Japanese tea ceremony, channelling the exchange of energy and fleeting truths between people. It features costumes by Australian fashion designer Akira Isogawa.