Uploaded May 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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lizalimcomposer.com
http://www.elision.org.au/
cerenem.org

Liza Lim: The Green Lion Eats the Sun (2014)
for adapted trombone

Performed 29 April 2019, St Pauls Hall, University of Huddersfield, UK

Benjamin Marks | trombone
ELISION Ensemble
Film by Angela Guyton

// Program Note

The Green Lion Eats the Sun was written especially for Melvyn Poore and the double-bell euphonium that he developed in collaboration with the instrument builder Gottfried Büchel during 2011-12. ‘The Green Lion Devouring the Sun’ is one of the classic images of alchemy with a great variety of interpretations as to its possible meaning. The green lion usually represents a powerfully volatile corrosive agent (aqua regis) which swallows seven metals, even dissolving gold in a process of purification.

The solo work explores the sonic worlds of the two bells of the instrument: a muted bell is used to filter fragments of a carnival of sound that are played through the open bell. The muted echoes represent the level of our conscious knowledge that barely catches hold of a riot of activity arising and falling away at the pre-conscious level. Every now and then a more intense communication between the two sides occurs as the bells flutter open and closed.