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An Offering: Eurythmy on Sculthorpe’s Requiem for Cello Solo

“In the fall of 2019, I felt I want to work on a piece that will grip me, and this piece did. The purest music… waiting for the purest gestures of eurythmy. Please listen, or watch or do both.” ~ Brigida Baldszun

Requiem for Cello Solo by Peter Sculthorpe, 1979

In six movements: Introit, Kyrie, Qui Miriam, Lacrimosa, Libera Me, Lux Aeterna

Performed in eurythmy by Brigida Baldszun, June 2020

Sound performance copied from Pieter Wispelwey

Camera: Ragnar Freidank

Special thanks to Jeanne Simon-McDonald

Peter Sculthorpe was born on April 29, 1929, and died on August 8, 2014. He wrote the Requiem in March/April 1979, just before his 50th birthday. Easter was on April 15 that year.

 

He asked that the lowest string of the cello be tuned down to B-flat and that the sound should be amplified. The plainchant melody should be played without vibrato, whereas the other phrases have a very personal character and invite the expression of warmth, passion, and desire.

 

By applying eurythmy movements to the music, the composition became very meaningful in relation to Easter and any experiences of imprisonment, asylum, danger, pandemic, and lockdown. ~ Brigida Baldszun

Brigida Baldszun, an independent working eurythmist, learned to play the cello when she was 9 years old, and almost took the professional track of a musician. The eurythmy training in Vienna showed her new ways of deepening an artistic impulse.

She was born and educated in Europe where she began her career. She has taught eurythmy in Waldorf schools in Europe, the U.S., South Africa, Russia, India, and China. Brigida performed for 12 years with the ESV Ensemble, and continues to perform both as a soloist and in the productions of Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Dramas. For the past 10 years, she has worked actively as a eurythmy therapist in schools and in private practice.