Dance from Kafka’s Chimp (harp)

19945'arr. for harp by Elinor Bennett and the composer

Programme Note

The literary fragment ‘A Report to an Academy’ is one of Kafka’s most capricious yet powerful inventions. It tells the story of a man who only five years ago was an ape and who in that time has raced through the evolutionary process. Inspired by this idea I wrote the 75 minute opera ‘Kafka’s Chimp’ which received its premiere in 1997 in Canada. In the opera the principal character goes out for the evening with a woman and at the end of the evening while they are both dozing on the sofa of her apartment he dreams of his jungle past . . .

I have transcribed this short dance from the opera for the harp with  generous technical support from Elinor Bennett. The transcription can be found in the volume Telyn Fyw – Living Harp.

 

Performance History

European Premiere
Vagnera Sale, Riga, Latvia
22nd September 2001
Catrin Finch – harp