The Hearing Trumpet
Wigmore Hall under the programme “Lockdown commissions”.
Wigmore Hall, 24 February 2024
This work is a tribute to the British/Mexican surrealist artist Leonora Carrington (1917, Clayton Green, Lancashire, England—2011, Mexico City) whose refined and imaginative work sadly doesn’t have much recognition in her country of birth despite the greatness of her art works and the wit and depth of her writings.
In this score I explore several recurring ideas: I took the idea from her book The Hearing Trumpet, “ a book about how we hear and how we don’t”. The hearing trumpet being the ‘instrument’ that can help us hear, what cannot be heard. With this concept in mind the score establishes a dramatic interaction between the off stage horn and the rest of the ensemble exploring the acoustic space at the Wigmore Hall.
The score also makes reference to her love of horses, an array of surreal insects and birds and her story of the debutant who didn’t want attend the Summer Ball and swaps places with a hyena.
Being Mexican/British, an immigrant in the opposite direction, I feel I have a strong connection with Carrington and her unlimited imagination resonates strongly with me.
The Hearing Trumpet was commission by the Wigmore Hall as part of their Lockdown commissions project and completed in 2023.