I've been working on this piece for women's choir for a little while now, so it's not purely MoM. (I'm going to be posting a lot of pieces like that, as I have a lot of pots on a lot of burners at the moment.)
We're doing a Stephen Leek piece in this aussie-music-in-nyc choir that I really like which uses some cool techniques. Some of you guys may know it, it's called Kondalilla and it's really beautiful. (I really ripped off Stephen Leek guys. Srsly. But hopefully it's still recognizably mine and not his.)
I wanted to commandeer his techniques (voices moving independently within a section, moving freely out of time) and write an incantation for women's voices. I've been playing with the idea of an incantation a lot lately. There's a lot there-- incanting, witchcraft, spells, rituals, etc. For me, witchcraft is synonymous with powerful women. As an archetype, the witch in stories is often the only woman with real power. This piece really is like a spell for a coven, and in a larger sense, it's an exploration of the power of saying no when we're socialized to be accommodating always.
I've been trying to puzzle through how to communicate this idea to other people, worked on it some more tonight. I'd love to see if people can actually make sense of the score!
Wow! The thought of 40 women singing this is chilling.
ReplyDeleteI like the notation, it makes me want to see this as some sort of part-book, know what I mean? Like, the sops get their aleatoric page, then the two-part score, the mezzos get a different first page, etc.
Is it coincidence that the eight note (in)cantus in the sops are the last eight notes of the dies irae AND that the words beneath those notes in the DI are (tes)te david cum sibylla? Sibylla being ancient greek oracle women?? Pls tell me this is true, I'm so pleased with myself