Rebecca Saunders: dust – module 1

(Submitted by ISCM – GERMAN SECTION)

Berlin-based British-born Rebecca Saunders (b. 1967) is one of the leading international composers of her generation. Her compositions focus on the sculptural and spatial properties of organized sound, often created in close collaborative dialogue with a variety of musicians and artists. Saunders has received numerous prizes, including the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 2019. She holds a professorship at the HMTM Hannover and is a member of the Academies of Arts in Berlin, Dresden and Munich.

About her solo percussion piece dust (2017/18), the composer writes: “A film of dust is a like a membrane, covering or layering the body or thing, on the ground, on surfaces or carried in the air. The dust of the earth is a place of burial. Dust within a room is composed mostly of dead skin, a powder of mortal remains.”