Episode 34: An Idea of Togetherness

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Episode 34: An Idea of Togetherness
February 16, 2023  7pm
An Idea of Togetherness* (2022)

Paolo Griffin (CA), composer

HATCH 2022 Ensemble:
Arlan Vriens, violin
Emma Schmiedecke, cello
Amanda Lowry, flute
Anjali Covill, clarinet
Randall Chaves, percussion
Ricardo Ferro, piano
Kelly Lin, conductor

* world premiere

Programme Note:

Recently, I’ve been interested in heterophonic singing traditions – that is, singing traditions characterized by the simultaneous variation of a single melodic line (for example, the truly remarkable Outer Hebridean Gaelic choral tradition). In particular, I love how these variations move together, creating a seemingly unruly but in fact, well-ordered and unidirectional line of sound. In An Idea of Togetherness, I attempt to combine this style of singing with an examination of how we pronounce words across myriad accents and speech forms that make up our contemporary culturally globalized world. I encode words into rhythms, and instruct the musicians to play with these rhythms and make them their own. Each musician, bringing with them their regional accents as well as their own personal way of speaking, contributes to a sonic mass that, just like these heterophonic singing traditions, consist of many variations of a single line. – Paolo Griffin

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