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Work


Egg & Tongue

for string quartet

Year:  1994   ·  Duration:  10m
Instrumentation:  for violin 1, violin 2, viola and cello

Year:  1994
Duration:  10m
Instrumentation  for violin 1, violin 2, vio...

Composer:   Juliet Palmer

Films, Audio & Samples

Sample Score

Sample: Page 1-3.

See details ➔

Borrow/Hire:

To borrow items or hire parts please email SOUNZ directly at info@sounz.org.nz.

About

The 'Elgin Marbles', taken from the Parthenon, lie at the centre of a long-standing property dispute between Greece and the British Government. Encountering these sculptures in the British Museum for the first time, I was intrigued to learn that one of the decorative motifs adorning its carved stone form was known as 'egg and tongue'. The sensuously rounded forms of eggs and tongues alternate and repeat along the borders of the monumental sculptures, an ancient pattern combining symbols of virility and fertility. The motif is widespread: several years later, walking through the ruined architecture of the Syrian city of Apamea, I found tumbled-down stones of Roman structures bearing this same pattern, rain-washed stones in a field of crocuses. In the music of Egg and Tongue, I play with ideas of patterning and fragmentation, cultural property and style. Familiar motifs repeat, adorn, are lost and take new shapes.

Juliet Palmer


Contents note

one movement


Performance history

17 Jan 1994: Performed by the Lydian String Quartet

28 Oct 1997: Performed by the New Zealand String Quartet

13 Nov 2009: NZSQ: ... Cultural Property

Performed by the New Zealand String Quartet

Palmer: Mix-up; cassette

Performed by the New Zealand String Quartet



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