DeHFO ((the deparment of how to fuck ourselves)

Premiere Organ Reframed
13/10/2017 at Union Chapel London
performed by James McVinnie and the London Contemporary Orchestra

Mira Calix has been commissioned to write a new work for Organ Reframed. The festival challenges artists and audiences to rethink the organ. invigorating this remarkable instrumen, and embedding it in the music of the 21st century.  The 3 day international festival features 8 new commissions and rare performances from musicians/artists from the UK, US and Canada.

Mira Calix has written DeHFO a response to a series of tweets by the writer and editor of Politics.co.uk in the summer of 2017, regarding the publishing of the proposed great repeal act from the DEexEU (department for exiting the EU).  Calix has taken a conceptual approach to the 12 minute work for organ and orchestra. The piece contains only the notes from the acronym, with JS Bach having created an H in notation, and is written for only the highest and lowest registers of the instruments. Thereby symbolising the great Brexit divide.

“Curating Organ Reframed 2017 has been an incredibly exciting process. To have the opportunity to build on the organ’s rich history and bring it to the attention of a new generation of artists feels important.  It may not be the most portable of instruments, but like any other it deserves a life.  It deserves that life to be continued and its music to be developed, and that’s what I’m trying to do over three days with Organ Reframed.” – Claire M Singer, festival programmer

https://www.musicglue.com/union-chapel/events/d7fc3070-282d-0135-5122-5a1b4d727f0b