"Now in his mid-40s, Nico Muhly is a prolific and much in-demand composer of works for a wide range of settings from orchestral to choral music, with scores for the stage and sacred compositions. His music wouldn't be considered 'easy', but when tackled by the brilliantly inventive Irish dance-theatre maker Michael Keegan-Dolan, it makes for a superb spectacle. Keegan-Dolan's The Only Tune, which brings Marking Time to a thrilling end,"
"Keegan-Dolan's The Only Tune, which brings Marking Time to a thrilling end, arose from a song written by Muhly for the American folk singer Sam Amidon, and Amidon is the first figure we see when the curtain goes up to reveal a handcuffed man standing on a stool beneath a noose. This unnerving, silent, static scene extends for an increasingly uncomfortable time,"
"Eventually, one by one, the eight dancers of Keegan-Dolan's Teaċ Daṁsa company take to the stage kitted out as skeletons - grotesque death is the dominant tone here, accentuated halfway through the performance, when an upstage curtain goes up to reveal the musicians of the Britten Sinfonia on a raised platform, they, too, kitted out as skeletons. Though not a straightforward narrative, The Only Tune is inspired by a murder ballad, which Amidon had learned as a child from his parents."
Marking Time with Nico Muhly presents three choreographers' responses to Muhly's music commissioned by Sadler's Wells' Composer Series. Nico Muhly composes across orchestral, choral, stage and sacred settings, and his music resists being 'easy'. Michael Keegan-Dolan's The Only Tune adapts a Muhly song for Sam Amidon into a theatrical spectacle that opens with a handcuffed man under a noose and sustained silent tension. Eight dancers appear as skeletons and the Britten Sinfonia musicians are revealed similarly costumed on a raised platform. The piece draws on a murder ballad narrative and exemplifies inventive theatricality amid varied program responses.
Read at London Unattached
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