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Episode 26: Susurrus
Welcome to PRESS PLAY, our recurring web series featuring exclusive performances of extraordinary solos and duos recorded in high quality at the Canadian Music Centre in Toronto. Each jam-packed episode includes intimate and informative conversation on the how and why behind the music with the artists themselves.
Sit back, relax and Press Play!
Available on YouTube, Facebook, and our website.
This episode was co-curated by Press Play host Joyce To.
Episode 26: Susurrus
Jun 23, 2022
Susurrus (2015)
Connor D’Netto (AU), composer
Aysel Taghi-Zada, violin
Joyce To and Dennis Patterson, electronics
Programme Notes:
susurrus /ˈsuː.sə.ɹəs/
(n.) a low soft sound, as of whispering, muttering or a quiet wind; a whisper or a rustling
An example of onomatopoeia, its English use was taken pre-nineteenth century from the Latin susurrus “a humming, whispering”. It is used to describe a low, indistinct, and often continuous sound.
- The soft susurrus and sighs of the branches. The endless susurrus of a distant river.
[from the reduplication of imitative Proto-Indo-European *swer- “to buzz, hum”]
Susurrus is an exploration into ephemera, and the vast timbral possibilities of an instrument as versatile as the violin. Opening with a simple set of alternating harmonics, a vast yet sparse texture opens up, buzzing and shimmering before giving way to fragments of lush lyricism and dazzling, energetic acrobatics, only to collapse back into the texture of the opening. – Connor D’Netto

production sponsors

Dr. Peter Burns
The Mary-Margaret Webb Foundation



