Unremembered Tongues (2013) for soprano, ensemble and computer, octophonic 17’
[performed by New Music Concerts, Robert Aitken conductor, Xin Wang, soprano]
[performed by New Music Concerts, Robert Aitken conductor, Xin Wang, soprano]
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“We are speaking about a waterfall of destruction unprecedented in the history of our species. In our lifetime half of the voices of humanity are being silenced.” Davis, Wade. 2009. The Wayfinders, Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, CBC Massey Lectures. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, p.266.
Unremembered Tongues is an interactive composition for solo soprano and ensemble with live electronics and octophonic sound projection. The initial inspiration came from thinking about the many forgotten and endangered languages that are disappearing in our relentlessly modernizing society and monoculture. Sonic evocation of these lost modes of expression is a main focus of the work. And listening to these languages as patterns in sound, with the awareness that there is meaning there that also has disappeared into the past, that too is part of the intent of the composition.
The languages used are Iwaidja and Kayardild from northern Australia, Latin, Blackfoot, Basque, Cree and Hawaiian. They were chosen for their sonic qualities, the vowel shapes and sound of the phonemes, and also for the cultures and histories that they represent. As well there are two passages of phonemes unrelated to these languages, instead an invented language. The work grows through a dialogue between the different languages and between the solo voice and the ensemble.
With microphones and computer processing one can listen more closely to the live musical gesture and then follow its transformation, as it moves into a kind of dream state, at times very close, at other times reflected in the distance as if in the past. The processed music is projected through eight speakers surrounding the audience creating layers of harmonized, delayed, filtered and granulated melodies, harmonies and sound events. These textures are shaped, spatialized, and transformed live during the performance with interaction from the composer. Unremembered Tongues was commissioned by New Music Concerts with the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts.