EXAUDI cond. James Weeks

Art: Gerhard Richter

Breathing Skies and the Distant Bells of Fulfilment (2021)

Live performance

Ekmeles, directed by Jeffrey Gavett
Moore Musical Arts Center, Bowling Green State University, Ohio
22 November 2021

Madrigal book in 31-TET (2012-16) after Nicola Vicentino
Texts adapted from Jacques Arcadelt's Primo Libro de' Madrigali (1539)

Primo Libro

for guitar, bass clarinet and any two bowed string instruments, with weeds (2021)

commissioned and performed by Prague Quiet Music Collective:

Ian Mikyska (guitar and weeds), Irvin Venyš (bass clarinet and weeds), Milan Kárník Jakeš (violin and weeds), Luan Gonçalves (double bass and weeds)

First performed at Prague Quiet Music Festival, Museum of Music, Prague, 18 December 2021

Live recording of premiere

*****

Weeds: unwanted plants, plants in the wrong place:

unwanted, small, straggling, spindly, rough, common, not useful, without elegant form, texture or colour, lacking in definition, unclear, lacking in strength;

in the wrong place, unboundaried, messy, in the cracks, spilling-out, unplanned, unfixed, in-between, uncultivated;

weedweaver is a music of weeds. In the dishonourable ontology of the weed it asserts beauty: fragile, entangled, various, lively.

weedweaver

EXAUDI

Emma Tring, Cressida Sharp (soprano)
Lucy Goddard (mezzo)
Tom Williams (countertenor)
David de Winter, Stephen Jeffes (tenor)
Michael Hickman (baritone)
Simon Whiteley(bass)

James Weeks (conductor)

World premiere, live performance
Milton Court Concert Hall, London
16 May 2022

At the heart of this piece is a poem, a celebration of being. I composed it in the three languages that have most shaped my experience: English (my mother tongue), German, and French. The piece mirrors the poem’s form: a “Prelude: mirages” then the five sections of “Cicada June”, each followed by one of the single phrases that constitute “Geheimlicht” (an invented word meaning secret light that might more broadly imply something kept in hiding). The languages often interweave, but by the last section, English and German have separated into parallel collections of brief “Incantations”. The text is integral to the music’s sound palette; recurrent rhythmic patterns, pitch repetitions, and generally slow-moving harmony all serve to open space for listening into the variegated timbral world of the words’ phonetic interplay.

Unlike the other pieces I have written over the past several decades, this work had no commission, deadline, or intended recipient; it was just a labor of love. I am therefore all the more deeply grateful to James Weeks and the singers of EXAUDI for bringing it to life.

Josh Levine: Cicada June | Geheimlicht (2016-18)

Sections (full duration 56mins) from Plain Air for mezzo-soprano, piano and tape (2021)

commissioned by Lucy Goddard and Siwan Rhys with funding from RVW Trust

text: Nan Shepherd, 'The Living Mountain', used by kind permission of Canongate Books Ltd through PLSClear

Lucy Goddard, mezzo
Siwan Rhys, piano

Live premiere performance

MUSICON, Durham

22nd June 2022

Plain Air - Sampler

for orchestra (2019)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov (orchestra)

extract of world premiere, Tectonics Glasgow, City Halls, Glasgow, 1 May 2022

recorded by BBC Radio 3; used with permission

www.bbc.co.uk/radio3

********

Weligwic (Anglo-Saxon, ‘place of willows’) is a sibling of my string quartet Leafleoht (‘Leaf-light’, 2018), and is similarly concerned with images of light and foliage, and our indwelling in the natural world (a theme woven through the mythology of willows since ancient times). The two pieces share many materials and follow a similar three-section structure, but whereas Leafleoht is concerned with daylight and brightness, Weligwic takes place in a half-light and is overcast and subdued in atmosphere. The first section consists of a series of extremely soft, fleeting aural glimpses; in the long central section, the Grove, the continuous, variegated string texture (a matrix through which each player wanders independently) acts as a field of sounds underlying other, intermittent layers; the third section sees a repeated brightening of the atmosphere, as on a cloudy day when the sun nearly breaks through.

Weligwic (extract)

RIOT Ensemble, cond. Aaron Holloway-Nahum 

Distat Terra Festival 2022

Tränen und Ozeane (2022)

performed by Quatuor Bozzini at Milton Court, London, March 2019

Leafleoht (2nd performance)

composed 2017
performed by Royal Northern Sinfonia

Düsseldorf

Fredrik Rasten: acoustic guitar, voice

Svevning is a Norwegian word meaning levitation or flying, in the sense of flying without
effort – like when a bird is fully supported by the airstream, merely gliding.

Svevning also refers to interference or beating, the acoustic phenomenon that occurs when
two tonal sounds differ in pitch only slightly. When two tones are sustained with stability, their difference in frequency manifests sonically as a pulsating pattern of vibration. As the difference in frequency between the two tones increases, the speed, or frequency of the pulse increases correspondingly until a point or
area is reached where the difference is no longer heard as a pulse, but as a tone. This is
what is known as a difference tone.

I do not know how the two meanings of ‘svevning’ (in German, Schwebung) relate to each
other etymologically, but I find a latent poetry in their combined meanings and connotations.

Svevning is an extension of my earlier piece Limn. The music unfolds as an ever-changing continuum of chords, propelled by open strings and their harmonic nodes, slowly interwoven by retuning, patterns of plucking and occasional
voice.

Fredrik Rasten, July 2021, Berlin




all rights reserved 
credits
released October 5, 2021

Recorded by Fredrik Rasten at CityLAB Berlin on March 3 & 5, 2021.
Mixed by Sam Dunscombe.
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
Cover artwork and design by d’incise.
Thanks to Marcus Pal, Mareike Lee, Adam Asnan, CityLAB Berlin, Sam, Giuseppe and
d’incise.

Released on INSUB records

buy download or cd here:

fredrikrasten.bandcamp.com/album/svevning

Svevning I

Svevning II

Since its debut in 2002, EXAUDI has emerged as one of Britain’s leading contemporary music ensembles. Founded by James Weeks (director) and Juliet Fraser (soprano), EXAUDI is based in London and draws its singers from among the UK’s brightest vocal talents. EXAUDI’s special affinity is for the radical edges of contemporary music, at home equally with maximal complexity, microtonality and experimental aesthetics. EXAUDI celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2012 with major UK and international tours and new commissions from Matthew Shlomowitz, Joanna Bailie, Bryn Harrison and Aaron Cassidy, amongst others.

EXAUDI gratefully acknowledges support from the PRS for Music Foundation.