Unsuk Chin - Mannequin (2014/2015)

00:00 1. MUSIC BOX - FEVER DREAM. An eerie music box (celesta) plays above subtle percussion machinations. Piercing string and flute harmonics sneak in
1:25 The music becomes panicked and frantic. (The orchestration techniques here are so astounding and varied, I can't describe them all) (2:09)(3:06)(3:49) (4:37)(5:05)
5:54 The music box creeps back in and fades away over a simultaneously warm and distressing string soundscape
07:01 2. SANDMAN AND CHILD. A gentle, eerily inviting pulse, slowly colored in/corrupted by the orchestra
8:31 A sudden violent turn of brass stings and frantic string runs (9:03) The gentle pulse returns but stressed by seemingly infinitely climbing string glissandos (10:10)
10:28 Climaxes in a wild flurry from all the orchestra (10:56) before the climbing string glisses slowly burn away the movement, despite desperate wind interjections
12:43 3. DANCE OF THE CLOCKWORK GIRL. A stilted dance hockets throughout the orchestra, gradually winding up (14:15)
15:45 Strident strings, brass stings, and woodwind flurries power the climax (16:14) before dissolving into unsynchronized pizz and harmonics
17:56 4. THE STOLEN EYES. The basses dance an awkward dance below ethereal bowed percussion (19:04) Alarming muted trumpets and distressed woodwinds
20:05 A deep bass drive, stabbing violin tremelos, as if being chased (20:42) High, piercing glisses, like sirens
22:32 A climactic nervous breakdown as all the orchestra rapidly start falling (23:12) Deep rumblings basses and the contrabassoon, stinging violin harmonics and bowed percussion, and brass stings end the piece

Composer: Unsuk Chin (진은숙 Chin Unsuk) (July 14, 1961 –)
Orchestra: Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música conducted by Baldur Brönnimann (Original video:    • "Mannequin" de Unsuk Chin  )

Score available from Boosey and Hawkes: https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Unsuk...

Mannequin tells a story, though neither in the form of a linear narrative nor in the manner of illustrative programme music: the line between dreams and reality is being crossed in a surreal manner, with the main themes of the scenario being problems of perception and of personal identity. It is freely based on the fantastical novella The Sandman, written by German writer, composer, music critic, lawyer, cabaret artist and draughtsman E. T. A. Hoffmann.

Mannequin consists of four movements. The first two movements, respectively titled Music Box – Fever Dream and Sandman and Child refer to Nathanael's childhood and how his nanny used to instil terror in him by a cautionary tale about the Sandman who steals misbehaving children's eyes and feeds them to his offspring who live in the crescent moon. Nathanael associates the Sandman's figure with a half-mythical and sinister person named Coppelius, who seems in some way connected with the decline of Nathanael's family and who continues to haunt the adult Nathanael's life in the guise of a number of grotesque 'doppelgangers'. The third movement, Dance of the Clockwork Girl, refers to Olimpia, a female life-size automaton, with whom Nathanael falls in love, without realizing its true nature until it is being destroyed during a fight between its inventor Spalanzani and Coppola, a dubious seller of optical aids (both apparently being doubles of Sandman/Coppelius). The title of the last movement, The Stolen Eyes, refers to the ubiquitous 'eye leitmotif': throughout Hoffmann's tale, Sandman and his 'doppelgangers' (Spalanzani, Coppelius and Coppola) are stealing, inventing or selling eyes – a motive that, similarly to the title of Chin's work (Mannequin), might of course also be understood allegorically.

—Maris Gothóni

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