Audio – Alistair McLean
Film – Agatha Yim, Polyphonic Pictures
Artistic Director of ELISION Ensemble – Daryl Buckley

The Green Lion Eats the Sun is a composition by Australian composer, educator and researcher Liza Lim. Originally written for double euphonium in 2014, it’s performed here by Ben Marks on double trombone as part of ELISION Ensemble’s Performance Series.

The name of the work is inspired by one of the classic images of alchemy, ‘The Green Lion Devouring the Sun’. Although this image has received many interpretations to its meaning throughout the years, in Lim’s program notes, she explains that ‘the lion usually represents a powerfully volatile corrosive agent (aqua regis) which swallows seven metals, even dissolving gold in a process of purification.’

This solo work explores ‘the sonic worlds of the two bells of the instrument: a muted bell is used to filter fragments of a carnival of sound that are played through the open bell. The muted echoes represent the level of our conscious knowledge that barely catches hold of a riot of activity arising and falling away at the pre-conscious level. Every now and then a more intense communication between the two sides occurs as the bells flutter open and close.’

You can read Lim’s full program notes here.

In this film we wanted to show the dynamism of the piece, and the intricacies of performing it on such a unique instrument. This meant honing in on the use of the thumb key which allowed Ben to switch between the two bells of the trombone, the precise (and at times frantic) movements of the slide, and Ben’s intense expressions and gestures.

To read more on some of my other projects with ELISION Ensemble, you can check them out below :