![]() For the final 360 video I therefore decided to combine both performances in a single video, with a transition from the Convento de Cristo to the Batalha Monastery occurring approximately halfway through the piece. Both locations were very well suited to spatial performances, and so the concerts also featured some other well known works of spatial music, most notably Tallis’ Spem in Alium (which was the subject of some previous posts). The piece was performed twice by the Zêzere Arts Festival choir, conducted by the wonderful Aoife Hiney, in two quite spectacular venues, namely the Convento de Cristo, Tomar (pictured above), and the Batalha Monastery. The lyrics consist of some fragments of poetry by Pablo Neruda as well as some original lines of my own. The score of this opening section can be seen below. Large numbers of these sibilant phrases are overlapped in an irregular fashion to deliberately disguise the individual voices and create a very large, spatially complex timbre of rolling noise-like waves. The opening of this piece will contain a significant degree of spill due to the common tonality of each part and will thus be perceived as a very large and diffuse texture. However, Brant was also aware of the perceptual limitations of this effect and he noted that precise spatial trajectories became harder to determine as the complexity and density of the spatial scene increases. Instead a continuous “ssssss” sound is produced for each entire phrase.īrant used the term spill to describe the effect of overlapping material produced by spatially distributed groups of musicians. The note durations are provided to indicate durations for the dynamic changes and do not indicate pitch. The angled lines in the score indicate the dynamics which are divided into three levels, below the bar line indicating fading to or from silence, above the bar line indicating maximum loudness and on the bar line indicating a medium level. In the opening section, each singer produces a continuous unpitched “sssssssssss” sound which follows a given dynamic pattern. These sibilant sounds are also used in isolation at the beginning of the piece, to create a wash of noise-like timbres which mimic the sounds of crashing waves suggested by the title. The beat is further delineated through the use of alliteration in the text as the unavoidable sibilant sounds mark the rhythmic pulse. Certain individual voices are further highlighted through offset rhythmic pulses and sustained notes.Īs exact rhythmic coordination is difficult to achieve when the musicians are spatially separated and hence a slow, regular tempo is used throughout. However, this problem is significantly reduced when the individual voices are spatially distributed. If this chord was produced from a single spatial location, it would collapse into a dense and largely static timbre. In particular, spatial separation is used to clarify and distinguish individual lines within the extremely dense, sixteen part harmony. The piece utilizes many of Henry Brant’s ideas, albeit with a much less atonal harmonic language. The choir is divided into four SATB groups positioned symmetrically around the audience and facing a central conductor. ![]() This noise texture was originally intended to accompany the choir, however in practice this proved to be unnecessary as the choir could easily produce hissing, noise textures which achieved the same effect. When a very large grain duration was employed the granulation algorithm produced a rolling noise texture which rose and fell in a somewhat irregular fashion and was highly reminiscent of the sound of breaking waves. The initial inspiration for this work came from some experiments with granulated white noise. The piece was commissioned by the Spatial Music Collective and New Dublin Voices choir, and was first performed by New Dublin Voices in Trinity Chapel, in January 2008. ![]() ![]() Sea Swell was my first choral composition, which I wrote many years ago in 2007 while working on my PhD in Trinity College Dublin.
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