The music and video here were commissioned by Musiktheater Im Revier Gelsenkirchen, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, as part of their Internetoper Project (www.internetoper.de).
San Francisco-based composer George Hurd was hired on to write the music, and filmmaker Joseph Voves (www.josephvoves.com) signed on to make the film, constructed entirely from dozens of hours of public domain footage in collage fashion.
It was composed in October of 2010 for a chamber quintet and electronics: Elyse Weakley (piano), Annie Phillips (bass clarinet), Erin Wang (cello), Adam Willumsen (violin), Andrew Maguire (vibraphone) and George Hurd (electronics).