Waves (2010)

About the piece:
The main association that stood in front of me when I started writing the piece was the sea in all its shades and layers, but only when I finished writing it, I realized that the theme of the piece is waves.
The waves are the center of creation. Waves have different modes of aggregation. Of course they are the waves of the sea, and the waves of the sea in their changing forms are in themselves a great and vast subject that can be an inspiration for music. But the waves in my work are also other waves. There are many waves in our world and some of them entered my creativity in one way or another. Waves are also the waves of the mind, they are waves of changing moods, they are also different frequencies (radio waves for example).
I chose a few lines from two poems by Tirza Atar and a poem by Yona Wollach. The songs talk about the sea but describe states of mind corresponding to different states of the sea and so does the music which contains the different states of the waves within the words of the two poets but also the personality of each and every one of them that I know from their other poems and from their biographies.
Writing this piece reminds me a bit of that hidden painting that already exists in its entirety but you have to poke and poke to discover it. As I progressed in writing, the work revealed itself to me and guided me on how to proceed. It's like walking in a maze when you know the goal but the path is unknown and you have to go through it, make mistakes, go back, and again and again until you finally reach the finish line. This is not an easy path and it involves frustrations and agony, but at the end of the process there is immense satisfaction and knowing that everything was for the best and the path of agony paid off.
The piece is written for mezzo-soprano and  orchestra and is an orchestral piece with a female singer. The singer blends in, goes in and out and sometimes becomes part of the orchestra like another instrument.
The work has four distinct parts that are not separate chapters but four that make up a whole.
In the first part, the words of Tirzah Atar appear: "Only the sea prays and whispers. Rhymes Rhymes prays and whispers. The sea plays, the sea is not sad, from a not great distance, with sad sands whispering." "The sea breaks waves like a heart to a low and tender shore."
The main element that repeats itself over and over and seems to me to have had the greatest impact on the music of this part is the prayer and the whispering of the sea and the waves. The singer sometimes sings accompanied by the orchestra and sometimes as an integral part of the orchestra. The prayer in this chapter appears in different forms and in different musical associations, some of which are very clear to the listener.
In the second part I used Yona Wollach's words: "The sea also recedes and maybe it has feelings of guilt like me. Suddenly everything is a beach and there are shells and animals to collect and you have to go back and collect." This is a much more blunt, angular part, perhaps less pleasant to the ear. It begins with a kind of "angular" fugue and even the singer sings in big jumps and blunt intervals.
The third part is written for strings only and brings other waves that start quite quiet and pleasant and become more and more stormy. It is a stormy soul on its inner waves. The music is lyrical and very melodic and harmonious.
The fourth part that concludes the piece returns to the unity of the words of Tirza Atar. This is the first time in the work that there is a clear dialogue between the singer and the instruments of the orchestra, a sort of statement and response. On the one hand, there is a reminder here of the beginning of the work leading to the end describing a large and peaceful space.
The waves calmed down and finally became one big sea.
The work was commissioned by the Israeli Camerata and its musical director Avner Biron.

Ella Milch-Sheriff