Based on the concerto grosso (concerto da chiesa)

Commissioned by the Ricciotti Ensemble.

 

 

The piece is a 'Frankenstein's Monster', not only in its 'gross' and often clumsy character, but also from it being stitched together from disfigured parts of Albinoni's Sonate da Chiesa, Corelli's Sonate da Chiesa (from Opus 1), Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D Major and Handel's Concerto Grosso in C Major.

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The four parts are in turn part of a larger project/concept called The Bishop of X***. Based on de Sade's perverted character of the same name (from 120 days of Sodom), The Bishop of X*** mixes 'bastardised' Baroque material (and gestures) with avant-garde Metal, and features anti-hero, the Bishop himself, as narrator and sadistic sermoniser.

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Sade's description of the Bishop:

"forty-five years old, more slender and more delicate than the Duc; a nasty mouth. He is deceitful, adroit, a faithful sectary of sodomy, active and passive, he has an absolute contempt for all other kinds of pleasure, he has brought about the cruel deaths of the two children whose sizable fortune was left in trust with him; he is a nervous type, so sensitive he nearly swoons upon discharging."