Sept Papillons
- Instrumentation
- Cello
- Composed
- 2000
- Duration
- 10'
- Publisher
- Chester Music
Purchase or download
About this piece
Saariaho's first piece after her opera L'Amour de loin, written partly during the opera's Salzburg rehearsals in 2000. Where the opera dealt with love, yearning and death, these seven miniatures turn to the butterfly as an image of the ephemeral, each studying a different kind of fragile movement that has no clear beginning or end. Commissioned by the Rudolf Steiner Foundation and dedicated to Anssi Karttunen, who premiered it in Helsinki on 10 September 2000.
Technical overview
Seven short movements, each with its own tempo and character marking (from 'Dolce, leggiero, libero' and 'Calmo, con tristezza' to 'Sempre poco nervoso, senza tempo' and 'Molto espressivo, energico'); the music favours fragile, unmeasured gesture and subtle shading over display.