Output details

Chambre 119. Composition for performer, amplified voice, piano, toy piano and CD accompaniment. Commissioned by Catherine Laws with Arts Council England funding, Premiere: Peninsula Arts Contemporary Piano Series, Plymouth, 18th March 2009. Score and DVD (contains recording and film, second folder). URL and hard copy evidence date of dissemination.

While reading Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon (1997), I became aware of suggestive aural properties contained within a single scene: A man marooned within a dysfunctional body, telegraphing his messages through decelerated manner of blinking eye dictation—syllable by syllable. The man is in the company of his estranged wife, with his acknowledged mistress is on speakerphone. The potential for this precise condition of elements became a rich area for explicit aural communication—an area of sound to be understood contextually. The creative situation suggested a compatible fit to making an exhibitable dialogue for soloist and auxiliary audio with immediately understandable situational factors. The first of the research questions within the emotional firmament of Chambre was, “How does one portray disembodied voices without depending overly on language?” A second question became, “How might one subsume the notion of place (a hospital) with the aspiration of sonic placelessness to allow for the greater role of this additive performer/mediator figure?” To create a purely-functioning, aural concert work I repurposed the protean objet trouvé of the voices within the scene, the triangular messaging system of a man (voiceless and telegraphing), a disembodied lover (on speakerphone) and a mediator wife figure (a lone speaking voice). The performer revisualises the concrete images which have been drained away from the drama, using piano and toy piano as messaging devices, thereby creating a separate and changeable visual of the ambiguous condition of gradual communication. Chambre 119 was premiered at Peninsula Arts Contemporary Piano Series, 18 March 2009; Sherwell Centre, Plymouth. Subsequent performances include: Cutting Edge Series, London; ICIA, Bath; Dartington College of Arts; Oxford Sonic Arts; Spring Festival of New Music, York; Orpheus Instituut Research Centre in Music (Belgium); Happy Days Beckett Festival Castle Coole, Enniskillen). The research was also disseminated as part of a lecture presentation at the Royal College of Music (Feb 2010); Beijing and Wuhan Conservatoires (China, Apr 2010).