Work
Commodus
for six double basses
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About
‘Commodus’ is a work composed for six basses, cast in nine movements each of approximately one minutes’ duration.
Written in response to the painting Nine Discourses on Commodus by Cy Twombly the work seeks to convey in musical terms the essential energies of the nine individual canvases which make up Twombly’s work.
Produced in the winter of 1963, the painting cycle Nine Discourses on Commodus serves as a summation of an agonized and singular phase in the painters career. The cycle is based on the cruelty, insanity, and eventual murder of the Roman emperor Aurelius Commodus (161–192 CE).
Conflict, opposition, and tension dominate the paintings' composition. Two whorls of matter hold the central focus of each piece, ranging in mood from serene, cloud like structures to bleeding wounds and culminating in a fiery apotheosis in the final panel.
-EW