Kiran Leonard - Derevaun Seraun

In 2014 Kiran Leonard was invited to perform a residency commemorating the re-opening of Manchester Central Library. He wrote a piece in five movements for voice, piano and string trio and called it “DEREVAUN SERAUN”. Each movement is written about a different piece of literature, exploring the value Kiran saw in each work and the impression it has made on him, and he says there is nothing more to it than that.

The pleasure of books – of good verse and stories and ideas – is a very simple thing, and I felt that some lofty unifying theme for the entire piece would be a betrayal of that belief. I think that when a work resonates with you it is an instinctive response to something. You can be taught to understand a challenging book, but not to feel affection for it; I think a lot of conversation around art, especially around literature, sometimes forgets this. In my experience, the art I like the most, irrespective of its 'difficulty', is the art I can advocate most directly and plainly, and about which I can say: “I read this piece and now I do not read or think in the same way that I did before”, or: “This is a story that I could not explain to someone; I do not understand it word-for- word, yet I feel like innately I understand the whole, and that the whole spoke to me”. This is a piece about five books that I like and why I like them.

1. Could She Still Draw Back
2. Living With Your Ailments
3. A Particle Of Flesh Refuse The Consummation of Death
4. The Mute Wide-Open Eye Of All Things
5. The Cure for Pneumothorax