Islamic Angels - solo piano (2019)

Instrumentation: solo piano.
Duration: 8 minutes.
Premiere: Anthony Moles at Songs and Dances by Moonlight, 21.09.19. Sydney, Australia.

SCORE: purchase here.

PROGRAM NOTE: Islamic Angels​ is inspired by the ​Duino Elegies ​by Rainer Maria Rilke. In these ten poems Rilke employs the imagery of angels as rich symbolism. However, these angels are primarily as depicted in Islam, rather than those in the Christian sense.

For Rilke, the angels of Islam were a symbol of transcendental beauty - something that we humans only catch a fleeting glimpse of in our time here on earth. For Rilke, angels could be a dark entity:

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels’
hierarchies? And even if one of them pressed me
suddenly against his heart: I would be consumed
in that overwhelming existence. For beauty is nothing
but the beginning of terror, which we still are able to
endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains
to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.

(The First Elegy trans. Stephen Mitchell)

Islamic Angels ​is in four larger sections and lasts approximately 8 minutes. I myself can only hope to capture the merest glimpses of the beauty and sorrow, the yearning and unbounded passion radiating from the pages of the awe-inspiring ​Duino Elegies​.

Thanks must go to pianist Christopher Murray whose enthusiasm for Rilke first planted the seeds of ​Islamic Angels​ ​when discussing writing a piece for him.

Islamic Angels​ ​is in memory of my former student Angus Reekie (1999-2016).