Sadie Harrison: No Title Required: Chamber Ensemble

The title of this work is taken from a poem of the same name by the Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996) and considers the importance of revolutions, tyrannicides and politicalconspiracies in relation to that of skimming shadows, fluttering white butterflies and windblown clouds.

No Title Required has two movements. The first is fast and virtuosic, the second, lyrical and colouristic. Both havethe same formal pattern - a series of variations where one aspect of each section provides the ‘theme’ for the following variation. Whereas the first movement juxtaposes blocks of material to create a disjunct,segmented structure, the second weaves lines together to create a single, flexible texture (disrupted towards the end by ‘reminiscences’ of the work’s opening).

No Title Required was commissioned by DoubleImage (to whom the work is dedicated) and has received several performances worldwide. The work was chosen to represent Australia in the ISCM World Music Days, Hong Kong in