Waiteata Collection of New Zealand Music, Volume No. 8

This collection features the Yesaroun’ Duo’s world premiere recording of Miriama Young’s Snapdragon (2003) – written for Yesaroun’

Purchase the disc from Sounz

Learn more about Miri at here

Learn more about the Yesaroun’ Duo at www.yesaroun.com

Credits:
Recorded June 2004
Princeton University’s Taplin Hall
Mary Roberts, engineer
produced by Yesaroun’ and Miriama Young
edited by Sam Solomon
mastered with Ryan Streber

The composers note:
“Snapdragon” was written for and premiered by the Yesaroun’ Duo with their fearsome exuberance and technical virtuosity in mind. The piece was composed during a time of media frenzy over America’s initial attack on Iraq. Snow was falling in Princeton, physically trapping me in a tall apartment, while my connection with the outside world at the time – the TV – projected sensational stories and graphic images of far away places in turmoil. Gradually, I had this sense of becoming numb, as weather and war preyed on a creeping awareness of my incapacity to act in any tangible way. So, the music that emerged has a certain physicality, borne of frustration and a sense of disenfranchisement: it is music rooted in the body, and composed for the body – dance-like, of heartbeat, breath, and sigh – a way to “voice” when I couldn’t speak.