Output details
35 - Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts
Royal Northern College of Music
Sanctuary for a Living Memory / Singing Stones Audio-B ABCD5024
These two suites are the outcome of an investigation into writing appropriately for the generous acoustic spaces of the 13 abbeys and cathedrals for which the works were conceived. The dramatic potential of these spaces was exploited by placing one group each of improvising and classical musicians around the audience, often employing audible cues when the musicians have no visual contact. Naturally, the experience of the listener varies depending upon where they sit: preliminary visits to the venues where the works were to be performed identified hidden balconies and access to them allowing the musicians to play many metres above the audience, and also to move around during the performances. In Singing Stones, the musicians gather from distant corners and approach the front stage incrementally via stationed music-stands, arriving for a rhythmic finale. The impression is that music emanates from the architecture itself. Custom-built bells and chimes augment the sound world in Sanctuary. Its musical language is a hybrid of classical and non-classical models derived from liturgical chant, extended harmony, jazz progressions and the melody of ‘Schäfe können sicher weiden’ from Bach’s Cantata 208 – whose melody, hinted at earlier in the piece, later becomes a repeated motif. Nevertheless, the shift between written and improvised sections provides the most surprise and momentum, as they also increasingly share a common language where conceptions of dissonance (certainly in the area of jazz) are challenged. Both pieces seek to exploit the acoustics of sacred spaces, harnessing the possibilities of monumental ambience and celebrating musical diversity within spiritually-evocative spaces.
Premiere: 16 May 2008, St Edmundsbury Cathedral. Acoustic Triangle (Tim Garland, Malcolm Creese and Gwilym Simcock); Sacconi Strings. Subsequent tour, June–October 2008 to Christ Church, Spitalfields; Beverly Minster; Romsey, Hexham and Dorchester Abbeys; Exeter, Lichfield, Worcester, Liverpool Metropolitan; Manchester, Canterbury, Lincoln and Sheffield Cathedrals.
