A major new work from Cassandra Miller

On March 11, the violist Lawrence Power and the Brussels Philharmonic, under the direction of Ilan Volkov, gave the world première of Cassandra Miller's I cannot love without trembling, as part of the Klarafestival in Belgium. A stream is temporarily online, and it demands to be heard — start around one hour and one minute in. The title comes from Simone Weil: "Human existence is so fragile a thing and exposed to such dangers that I cannot love without trembling." The melodic material is based on the moirologia laments of the women of Epirus, as interpreted by the early twentieth-century Greek-American fiddler Alexis Zoumbas. Miller writes: "Using one of [Zoumbas's] moiroloi recordings as a source, I sang along many times (first to Zoumbas, then to myself) in a ritualized, meditative process I call ‘automatic singing.' This method transformed the moiroloi into the violist’s trembling-loving-mourning sighs. Within Zoumbas’ plaintive song, I sought a metaphysical space in which to dream – a space of separation-connection-absence-presence – in the hope to lament and to dream together in this hall tonight." At first hearing — and at second, and at third — the results are immensely beautiful and immensely haunting.