Music by Samuel Beebe.

The Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra, Susan Deaver, conducting.

Inspired by a Roberto Ifill poem of the same name, THE REST IS SILENCE was initially conceived as a choral work. The poem was written following the death of the poet’s sister, Gwen Ifill, and makes reference to Hamlet’s final words just before he dies. Ifill’s lyrical lines of verse consider the moment of passing from life to death, and relate this mysterious transition to imagery such as a person plunging into a frigid lake, and the moment when a baby’s head droops into sleep.

The phrasing and textures in the orchestral score still very much resemble the original sketches from the choral setting, particularly the rests (silences) between the phrases, originally designed to offer the singers an instant to take a breath before heading into the oncoming line. These pauses were left intact, allowing the orchestra to have the feel of a choir, breathing between phrases. As the music moves throughout the orchestra, each choir in the orchestra brings out its own expressive interpretation of the original choral material, highlighting particularly the four horns and the strings. The expansive, shimmering opening, along with its reprise later on as climactic closing section, were added later in the composition process, framing the internal, restrained material, lending additional depth to the emotional narrative of the work.

THE REST IS SILENCE

Voice as Movement
FOR MEZZO-SOPRANO, VIOLIN, CELLO, AND ELECTRONICS
Music by Samuel Beebe.

“Just as silence is the ground of all sound, so stillness is the ground of all movement…”

Voice as Movement: Stock-Still is part of an ongoing collaboration between mezzo-soprano Natasha Nelson and composer Samuel Beebe to create a score for a new work that integrates elements of opera and dance, intended as a dialogue between sound and movement, designed to explore how the extension of sound into movement can alter an audience’s perception of the work and can activate a space differently than with sound alone.

The score calls for the ensemble to be amplified, not only to boost the overall dynamic level of the group, but also to allow for simple live electronic processing techniques; namely, delay and reverb.  These effects augment the live performance, complicating rhythmic textures and creating space. Instead of literal text, each phrase of the electrified vocal part is abstracted into varying combinations of consonant and vowel sounds, resulting in a wide variety of tone colors and timbral qualities traversed in this winding, reflective vocalise. 

Natasha Nelson, mezzo-soprano
Stephanie Liu, violin
Stephen Moran, cello
Samuel Beebe, electronics

Voice As Movement: Stock-Still

Samuel Beebe is a Brooklyn-based composer, sound designer, and producer.

To reach out, contact: beebe.sa@gmail.com

THE REST IS SILENCE

Samuel Beebe

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