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Christopher Butterfield
(conductor, Victoria Symphony)
[2000 Tic.Toc]
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Christopher Butterfield composes. His opera Zürich 1916, on a libretto by John Bentley Mays, was given its premiere at the Banff Festival of the Arts in August 1998. In late 1998 he was appointed resident composer of the Victoria Symphony: his orchestral work belladonna from maccabaeus canoe was given its first performance in October 1999. CDs of his music are available from Artifact and CBC Records.
Christopher Butterfield conducts. Since 1995 he has given west coast premieres of Boulez’ Le Marteau sans maître, Berg’s Kammerkonzert and Varese’s Ecuatorial.
Christopher Butterfield performs. He toured with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company to New York, Boston, Avignon, Paris and Amsterdam in 1996/97 speak/singing Kurt Schwitters’ sound-poem Ursonata
The good traveller doesn’t know where he’s going;
the great traveller doesn’t know where he’s been.
—Chuang Tzu
Composer Christopher Butterfield’s music continues to move further into the cloud of unknowing. Taking strength from painter Gerhard Richter, who states "I don’t know what I want… I am inconsistent… I like continual uncertainty", he finds composing—like life—more full of questions and mystery than ever. He swings endlessly between the desire to make comprehensible, alluring statements, and the fascination that lies in attempting to create an enigmatic object. Art is found somewhere between the two poles.
Butterfield’s works in progress are:
- Contes pour enfants pas sages, a setting of Jacques Prévert’s mordant children’s stories, for Finnish ‘cellist Anssi Karttunen and Vancouver’s Standing Wave ensemble,
- (untitled), for amplified string quartet and cathedral bells, to take place outdoors on Canada Day (July 1) 2000,
- PQ 17, music to accompany a dance by Toronto/Montreal choreographer Bill Coleman, based on the story of a doomed World War 2 merchant naval convoy, to be performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in May 2001
- a work for Dutch harmonium player Dirk Luijmes,
- an opera based on French dadaist Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes’ 1916 play, The Emperor of China, for Toronto’s Autumn Leaf Performance, Thom Sokolowski dir. (translated by the composer in 1981).
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