Instrumentation: Trumpet in C, Piano, Mezzo-Soprano, Harpsichord, Piano, Violoncello, Double Bass
In his manual Joysprick, on James Joyce’s works Ulysses & Finnegan’s Wake he finishes with an anecdote about the importance of exposure, music and language. As an example of how language can alter context, he noted that amongst the many interpretations of the title of his novella A Clockwork Orange, his Malay students at the time thought it meant a man made out of machinery. The reason for this being that orang in the Malay language means man. Another humorous misspelling of theirs was that of orange squash as orang squash- meaning ‘man squash’. The title of this work is taken from that short anecdote.
In Joysprick Burgess also talks about the musicalisation of language. He admires the musical structuring that Joyce utilises within his writings, even at their most nonsensical. It is this aspect that Orang Squash concentrates on. Taking extracts from A Clockwork Orange, Joysprick, The Enemy in the Blanket & Earthly Powers, this short four-song cycle explores several ways in which music affects the structure of language and vice versa. The ensemble and harmony of Orang Squash was inspired by cool jazz. The use of jazz harmony within these four miniatures was inspired by twentieth century composer Darius Milhaud.
Each miniature poses as a small humorous insight into a melting pot of all these inspirations...
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I.My Brothers
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II. Baraabum
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III. Pembayang & Maksud
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IV. Dionysian Truncation
Performed & Recorded at the International Anthony Burgess Centre.
