Sonata (2013)
Composition and film installation
Filmed on location in the Non-Catholic Cemetery, Rome, 5 May 2013

Supported by Creative Scotland Visual Arts Award £10,000

Sonata is a composition for piano, cello and violin based upon the speech, poems and letters of three poets buried in the Non-Catholic Cemetery: the English Romantic poets John Keats (1795-1821) and Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) and the US Beat Poet, Gregory Corso (1930-2001).

The composition is in three movements:

I - Lift Me Up For I Am Dying
The first movement is an evolution of the composition, Lift Me Up For I Am Dying based upon the last spoken words of Keats. Lift Me Up For I Am Dying was commissioned by the Swiss Institute in Rome (2010) and formed the basis for Duet, an audio installation at the Rothko Chapel, Houston, 14-15 May 2013.

II - Adonais - Adagio
The second movement is based upon lines from Shelley’s long poem of lament, Adonais, An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc. (1821). Shelley, who had also lived in the house on Piazza di Spagna in which Keats died, considered Adonais to be among his best compositions. When Shelley drowned in the Bay of Spezia he was found with a volume of Keats’ poems in his shirt pocket.

III - Letters from Rome
The final movement is based upon three letters written by Corso upon a visit to the graves of Keats and Shelley in the Non-Catholic Cemetery on the anniversary of Keats’ birthday in 1958. Corso’s letters were addressed to his fellow beat poets: Phillip Whalen, Allen Ginsburg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Corso’s ashes were buried at the foot of Shelley’s grave in the Non-Catholic Cemetery on 5 May 2001.

Sonata performed by Da Vinci Trio:

Violin: Tony Moffat, Leader of the Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Cello: Robert Irvine, Head of Chamber Music at the Royal Conservatoire, Scotland
Piano: Mario Montore, Leader of the Avos Quartet, Rome

Filming was preceded by a public recital introduced by Adam Szymczyk, Director of Kunsthalle Basel.

With thanks to:
Amanda Thursfield, Director
THE NON-CATHOLIC CEMETERY IN ROME,
via Caio Cestio, 6, 00153, Roma

Ross Birrell, Duet, Keats-Shelley House,
Piazza di Spagna, 26, 13 May - 6 September 2013

First exhibited in Ross Birrell and David Harding, Winter Line, Kunsthalle Basel, 17 Jan - 23 Ma3 2014.

Performed by DaVinci Trio at Museumsnacht, Kunsthalle Basel, 17 Jan 2014.