Isabella Gellis
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Filter: all, Orchestral, Chamber, Ensemble, Opera, Vocal, Solo, Keyboard
Many Fruited Dog Tooth 
2025Many Fruited Dog Tooth” [Cynodontium polycarpon] is the name of a moss native to Britain. I love all that this name implies: sharp and soft, blooming but also decaying, sounds that cling, embedded rootlessness. I imagine this music as an encounter with something that has already existed for a long time and will continue to do so once you stop listening.

This is the third piece in a series of works that share names with mosses - the other two are Lurid Cupola Moss (string trio), and Rusty Swan Neck Moss (solo cello). 

It is important to note that none of these piece are “about moss”. 

Commissioned by 12 Ensemble, premiered at Wigmore Hall.


Ensemble

Strings: 4.3.2.2.2

11’

(also possible as 4.3.2.3.1)

Opera for Orchestra
2025This is a piece for “mixed ability ensemble”. It does what a Concerto for Orchestra does with the concerto, but with opera. 

What I love about opera, is that if often deals with extremes. Emotions are heightened, and the characters who inhabit these stories often find themselves propelled into either the very best or very worst case scenarios in equal measures. In my piece, Opera for Orchestra, the music provides everything, representing not only the characters, but also landscapes and actions: every gesture and voice has a dramatic significance, and the piece tumbles forwards as a series of reactions

Commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, who premiered in Trafalgar Square, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano.

Orchestral
3.3.3.3 - 4.3.3.2 - timp.5perc - str

10’
n.b. the final part for each instrument (e.g. Flute 3, Horn 4, Tuba 2) is written for musicians who are approximately a Grade 4+ standard, and can be played by multiple players

All
2025 A setting of the third and final part of Dylan Thomas’s ‘All All and All’

Commissioned by SongEasel, for Jocelyn Freeman and James Gilchrist

Vocal
tenor, piano

4’

Two Haikus
2024 Settings of two haikus by Matsuo Bashō

  1. うき我をさびしがらせよかんこ鳥
  2. 東にしあはれさひとつ秋の風

The first one is about a cuckoo, the second is about the wind.

Commissioned by Feargal Mostyn-Williams for his “Songs of Miura Anjin” programme

Vocal
countertenor, piano

4’

Four Morris Interludes from The Devil’s Den
2024In my opera, The Devil’s Den, these morris dance interludes punctuate the drama periodically, but here they are heard as one continuous suite.

  1. Bells 
  2. Sticks 
  3. Hankies 
  4. Beasts


Commissioned by Aspen Music Festival and School

Orchestral
3.2.2.2 - 4.2.2.1 - timp.2perc - pf - hp - str

11’

The  Devil’s Den
2024A folkloric tale of superstition, featuring a child, a druid, a rabbit and a devil. 

In one act, five scenes, and four dances.

Commissioned by Shadwell Opera

Libretto and story by me also.

First performed at the Nevill Holt Festival, June 2024.

Opera
1.1.1.1 - 1.1.1.0 - perc - pf - hp - 1.1.1.1.1
Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Baritone, Bass
A side of Morris Dancers (at least six people needed)

70’

Lady Skimmington
2024Gentle ‘Rough Music’; a charivari of sorts. 

Written for the London Symphony Orchestra through the Panufnik Scheme.
Orchestral
3.2.3.2 - 4.2.2.1 - timp.2perc - pf - hp - str

3’30” 

You’re A Piano Quintet
2023 - ongoing
  1. When the world is crumbling under the weight of your misery (studying by candlelight) [in progress]

  2. You’re a bear dancing for the Tudor court [2024]

  3. You’re moss on a road sign falling in love with someone you can’t have (it’s raining) [2023]

RETAKE commission.

Melodica needed for the third movement.
Chamber
violin, violin, viola, cello, piano

15’+ 




Valedictions
2023A study of unisons both vertical and diagonal. 
Simple, sweet, a bit happy, a bit sad.

It was written in London in June of 2023, and revised in Aspen in July of the same year.

Orchestral
3.3.3.2 - 4.3.3.1 - timp.3perc - pf - hp - str

9’ 

© Isabella Gellis 2022 - 2025