Død Mus Sang

The Bird snatcher: Commissioned for the family theatre production ‘Swoop’. During the play the character, Sam, uses shadow puppetry to tell the story of a big creepy man that hides in the fields every evening in the Nigerian village of Ebok-Boje. He’s hoping to catch Swallows and put them in a big stew to eat.

Kiki: This Yiddish inspired piece conjurs up imagery of a folk setting. A tavern where a portly female taverner is making her way haphazardly around with drinks.

St Anthony’s Temptation: Salvador Dali’s The Temptation of Saint Anthony depicts the temptations Saint Anthony the Great reportedly faced during his pilgrimage to the desert. As told by Athanasius of Alexandria, Anthony renounced his worldly possessions in the 3rd Century. He traveled to the Arabian Desert to live alone and strengthen his faith. While on his pilgrimage, Anthony repeated prayers as Satan attempted to tempt him. In Salvador Dali’s version of the tale, Saint Anthony is walking through the desert when he is confronted by a giant horse and five elephants.

Moon Tune: A Trip to the Moon (French: Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a 1902 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne's novels From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, the film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon's surface, escape from an underground group of Selenites (lunar inhabitants), and return with a splashdown to Earth with a captive Selenite. This work is an ode to the nostalgia of the silent film genre.

Octopus Tanz: Deep beneath the ocean lies an enormous multi-coloured Octopus. Floating, bolting, gliding, the movements of Octopus are completely irregular, and tangy. Octopus Tanz was composed to allow the trio to sound fuller and funkier with its close voicing.

Gamal’s Trek: Gamal, the camel, has been imprisoned, and longs for the day when he can again roam freely through the desert and drink water from little pools. One night he manages to escape and we join him on his long journey home. Towards the end of this escapade he stumbles a little, but announces his arrival in a triumphant major chord!

The Phax Suite: The Phax Suite is designed to whisk you around Europe in seven minutes. We start in the French countryside with a light hearted, white wined tune. The second movement takes us through a cathedral in England, convincing us to reflect on our spiritual well-being. Breaking out into a lively third movement, we join the Balkan people and dance around the campside with no care for tomorrow.
Død Mus Sang: We have fond memories of our Norwegian mentor Bjørn Breistein at the South African National Youth Orchestra course in 2011. Especially when he conducted a beautiful brooding work by Geirr Tveitt in which our players had a solo in the middle of the second movement. We enjoyed each other’s sound so much that we decided to form this trio, and write a piece to dedicate to Bjørn. Ironically, during the composing process our housemate was unsympathetically dealing with a small mouse problem in our house by setting out ghoulish mousetraps. And every morning as this piece was written you would hear the faint sounds mousetraps slamming shut in the distance accompanied by the burial of small baby mice. This work feature our Euphonium player, Andrea.

Wilderness Funk: Wilderness Funk is funk. Nothing more to be said. Enjoy!

Persian Tanz: Imagine a desert cavalry racing across the dunes towards the campsite. They are excited to be home and ready to get the festivities underway. A large bonfire is made and everyone gathers around in a big circle clapping, drumming and singing. One person jumps into the centre and takes a moment to enjoy the limelight. Dancing and enjoying the hype.