From the Circles consists of 2 pieces: Francesca da Rimini and The Wood of Suicides. Each is a treatment of the same source material, recorded speech, though the words are completely unintelligible. The titles refer to 2 episodes from Dante's Inferno, not to Tchaikovsky (a composer I despise).
Francesca da Rimini was a real person whom Dante comes across as a disembodied spirit tossed helplessly on the Black Wind in the 1st circle of Upper Hell. The Wood of Suicides is situated between the river Phlegethon and the Abominable Sand. Here, the souls of suicides are trapped inside dead trees - they can make no utterance until a Harpie tears off a piece of a branch, and then only for as long as it takes the wound to heal.
The piece was realised in the UVIC studio in 1986.
Francesca da Rimini
The Wood of Suicides
