Chris Wild - Abhanden

Ensemble SurPlus, Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany, 19 August 2007

...à son dernier soupir

Prelude to Act III of Jonestown: A Multimedia Chamber Opera. This prelude uses the song "Black Baby" from the album, He's Able, which was recorded and produced by the members of the Peoples Temple. 

To learn more about Jonestown, click here- http://www.evanwilliamsmusic.info/jonestown.html

Jonestown, Prelude to Act III, "Black Baby"

This is a live performance of my piece, Currents, for two alto saxophones, mallet percussion, and piano, from the SICPP 2011 "Iditarod" concert, June 25th, 2011. Zach Herchen and Philipp Stäudlin, alto saxophones; Ryan Packard, percussion; and Aaron Likness, piano

III. Beaufort Gyre (SICPP)

matt barbier & weston olencki
RAGE THORMBONES

01.12.2016
betalevel
los angeles, ca

m.b. (mix-master)

m. barbier gravlax [b]

Like A Language

In Columna is scored for chorus, 2 violins, cello, lute, and organ. The text (sung in Latin) is taken from Exodus 13:21 and 13:22:

21 By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.

22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

-Translation from The Holy Bible: New International Version

In Columna was commissioned by Seraphic Fire, Patrick Dupre Quigley, Artistic Director, in partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

In Columna

Live recording from the premiere run, October 2017, Edge Theater, Chicago, IL

Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, soprano
Ensemble dal Niente 
Featured in this excerpt: Kyle Flens, percussion; Ben Melsky, harp; Chris Wild, cello; Ben Sutherland, electric bass 

The Body of the State is a 3-scene monodrama about Juana of Castile (1479-1555). Juana unexpectedly inherited the Castilian throne when her husband died in 1506, but she never truly ruled – her father quickly declared her insane, claimed her power, and confined her to a house in remote Tordesillas, where she remained for essentially the rest of her life. Recent scholarship poses Juana as an intelligent woman whose erratic behavior, whether calculated or involuntary, was a desperate and understandable response to lifelong suppression of her agency and personal freedom. In this light, The Body of the State aims for a nuanced portrayal of Juana’s psychological struggle to maintain her sense of self within this oppressive familial and social context. Rather than serving as a “pit orchestra,” the instrumentalists who perform the piece are onstage with the singer and involved in the production of the work as both a theatrical and musical representation of the complex relationships and societal forces governing Juana’s existence.

The perspectives of seven contemporary women – myself and six women with first-hand knowledge of incarceration – are also woven into The Body of the State. In the fall of 2016 I took part in a faculty reading group at DePauw University that met via videoconference with the graduate class at Indiana Women’s Prison. The group’s topic was epistemic injustice, which occurs when we discount someone’s ability to be a knower and reduce that person to a knowable object. Epistemic injustice affects many marginalized people, including the incarcerated. As I learned about epistemic injustice from the women at IWP, I realized its role in Juana’s story, and asked the IWP scholars if they would like to participate in the creation of this piece. Several women were interested, and in the end a group of seven of us met regularly at IWP over the next five months. We read a book about Juana together and wrote responses to it in the form of poems, essays, and free-written ideas about the intersections between her life and ours. We synthesized elements from these texts into the libretto for Scenes I and III, and decided to retain my pre-existing (2014) text for Scene II. We developed a group vocal improvisation practice using spoken and sung fragments of text. Recordings of these improvisations, as well as the ubiquitous hiss of the HVAC systems in the IWP education building, are featured in the work’s electronics. I am deeply grateful for the knowledge, talent, honesty, and generosity that each member of the group brought to this project.

The Body of the State, Scene III, Aria "Timeless Time" (live)

Eliza Brown

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