Bodies

Two things — a thou­sand things — meet face to face; two plan­ets, the air on ei­ther side of a door, Leda and the Swan, Hem­lock and Socrates, two hands, a river and the sea. Their or­bits and col­li­sions are his­tory and life, the brush­ing and break­ing of edges. Bod­ies, for oboe and piano, is about these meet­ings and res­o­lu­tions, about the bor­der be­tween being and not-be­ing, where one body ends and an­other starts.

Bod­ies was pre­miered by Emily Sleightholme, oboe, and Keith McAl­is­ter, piano, on 11th March 2008 as part of the Dis­tant Voices day fo­cus­ing on the music of John White and Nina White­man at the Mar­tin Har­ris Cen­tre for Music and Drama, Man­ches­ter.