Chroma XV | Rebecca Saunders | musikFabrik

Chroma by Rebecca Saunders is a work concerned with the search for and manipulation of single sounds, sound structures, soundscapes and their movement and dispersion in the performance space. Although meticulously composed in the finest detail, Chroma is an open-ended concept that is composed anew for each venue. No version likens another, just as no performance space is the same as another.

Five instrument groups and countless musical boxes acoustically animate the rooms inside and out and make tangible the fascinating sound world of Rebecca Saunders. The audience is invited to move around the space, to effectively follow the sounds, or to experience distance and proximity from a chosen position.

The title Chroma alludes to extremely pure and intense colours. Saunders says she initially composed the music for each group separately. She then pinned all the scores to the walls of her room and graphically organised them as though they were pictures. This helped her to determine the relationships that exist between the different ensembles.