Composer Anna Clyne's String Quartet for "Woman Holding a Balance"

Musicians of the Orchestra of St. Luke perform Clyne's piece, written for Jyll Bradley and David Ward's short film, "Woman Holding a Balance"

Anna recently talked with The Violin Channel about the project.

"The music for 'Woman Holding a Balance' is composed for string quartet and is a minimal accompaniment to the unfolding imagery of Jyll Bradley’s film 'Woman Holding a Balance,'" she said.

"The music reflects the meditative nature of the film and the cyclical passing of light through the sculpture over the course of a day. Shifting harmonic colors undulate in strange loops until they reach a melodic section, before returning to the stillness of the opening music.

"I first met Jyll during 2020 through a project with the Scottish Ensemble. We have continued our collaboration with this new work, 'Woman Holding a Balance,' which will be premiered by the Orchestra of St Luke’s on March 24th.

"This work began with a close dialogue with Jyll about her concept for the work and then finding a musical sound-world that would complement it — and also allow space for the spoken voice to be heard clearly. I then created a MIDI mockup of the music so that she could get an impression of how the music worked with the imagery. She then shared the recorded text, recited by artist David Ward, and the ambient sounds which I then mixed with the MIDI. The next step was to record the musicians and replace the MIDI with the actual music.

"I hope that viewers of this work will find escape in the brief seven minutes of this work. I find Jyll’s work to be very meditative and time momentarily slows down when I experience her work. It’s a very beautiful visual world and it has been a joy to create music to accompany it."

The Orchestra of St. Luke's will premiere the film on March 24, 2021. Watch the premiere here, https://bit.ly/2PoFjRz

ANNA CLYNE | ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S | JYLL BRADLEY & DAVID WARD | "WOMAN HOLDING A BALANCE" | 2021