I won’t be outrun by a cavalry of snails

11 min 30 sec

June 26, 2021
Nichols Concert Hall, Music Institute of Chicago
Evanston, IL

Ensemble del Niente:
Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, soprano
Carrie Henneman Shaw, soprano
Emma Hospelhorn, flutes
Katherine Schoepflin Jimoh, clarinets
Winston Choi, piano
Hanna Hurwitz, violin
Ammie Brod, viola
Juan Horie, cello
Michael Lewanski, conductor

Commissioned by Ensemble del Niente

2 soprano, fl, cl, pft, vln, vla, vc

Osnat Netzer

I won’t be outrun by a cavalry of snails was commissioned by Ensemble Dal Niente. It was composed in Lincolnshire, Illinois and completed in April of 2021.

I won’t be outrun by a cavalry of snails is a theatrical, absurdist, psychedelic adventure. The vocal sounds are a combination of abstract vocal sounds and nonsense text, created through stream of consciousness. The aim is to create a fantasy world in which the listener can almost piece together a semantic meaning, but that meaning always escapes them. The vocalists are always on a tightrope between being instrumentalists, to conveyors of the absurdity of the human condition. Incoherent but ultra-affected shouts, whispers, vocalizations, interactions alternate quickly throughout the piece, that quick-paced transition from one affect to another adding another layer of mad-hatter-style comedy. The piece is to me a kind of battle between higher order, the unconscious, the intuitive and the counter-intuitive.

–Osnat Netzer