Cortege - Interview with Sir Harrison Birtwistle: Landmarks

In this interview Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Tom Service discuss his 2007 work Cortege from its beginnings as a reworking of his earlier work Ritual Fragment to its musical and theatrical elements. The talk features musical examples performed by London Sinfonietta players. In Cortege Birtwistle creates a piece of music theatre for 14 unconducted musicians, 10 of whom take it in turns to walk out to the front and perform as a soloist. As each player gets to the end of their solo passage they overlap with the next player - passing on the solo line in a seamless thread. The musicians sit in a horseshoe with each of the 10 soloists opposite the one who plays after them, swapping places when they return to their seat. This simple piece of theatre elegantly articulates the music’s structure. Filmed live at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre.