Text: Excerpts from Dante Alighieri's (1265–1321) Paradiso:
1.
Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda
Canto I, line 34
2.
Qual è colüi che sognando vede, 
che dopo 'l sogno la passione impressa 
rimane, e l'altro a la mente non riede,
Canto XXXIII line 58
3.
Di quel color che per lo sole avverso
nube dipigne da sera e da mane,
vid' îo allora tutto 'l ciel cosperso.
Canto XXVII, lines 28-30
4.
Ma già volgeva il mio disio e 'l velle, 
sì come rota ch'igualmente è mossa, 
l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle. 
Canto XXXIII, line 142

My composition Sognando Vede, is inspired by the timbre of Audrey Coté, the singer’s, voice. It was the source of inspiration for all the musical materials; orchestrating the vocal line by colouring it with the timbres of the ensemble. The excerpts of text from Dante’s Paradiso were chosen based on their descriptiveness and how these qualities could be translated into a musical setting.

Sognando Vede

For soprano, mezzo-soprano, and sixteen instruments
Nov 21 2014 - Kit Vaughan Soden
Directed by Guillaume Bourgogne with the McGill CME

Il Existe Un Bleu Dont Je Meurs

Voices Of Earth, performed by Kelly Herrmann

TEXT(s):
 
REQUIESCAT, by Oscar Wilde
Tread lightly, she is near
Under the snow,
Speak gently, she can hear
The daisies grow. 
 
All her bright golden hair
Tarnished with rust,
She that was young and fair
Fallen to dust. 
 
Lily-like, white as snow,
She hardly knew
She was a woman, so
Sweetly she grew. 
 
Coffin-board, heavy stone,
Lie on her breast,
I vex my heart alone,
She is at rest. 
 
Peace, peace, she cannot hear
Lyre or sonnet,
All my life's buried here,
Heap earth upon it.
 
Excerpts from the Missa pro Defunctis:
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine
Et lux perpetua luceat eis
 
Lux æterna luceat eis, Domine
 
Linguistic Analogues of Rest in Peace, in order of appearance:
Latin: Requiescat in pace.
Irish: Ar dheis Dé go raibh a (h)anam (Lit.On God's right may his/her soul be)
French: Repose en paix
Cantonese: 安息 (ngon sik)
Persian: روحش شاد‎‎ (Roohash shaad)
German: Ruhe in Frieden
Bulgarian: Почивай в мир (Pochivaj v mir)
Mandarin: 安息 (Ān xī)
Lithuanian: Ilsėkis ramybėje
Scottish Gaelic: Gus am bris an là (lit. Until the day breaks)
Finnish: Lepää rauhassa
Norwegian: Hvil i fred
Hebrew: תהא נשמתו צרורה בצרור החיים‎‎ (Tehe nishmato tsrura bitsror hahayim) (תנצב"ה)
Korean: 삼가 고인의 명복을 빕니다 (Samga goinui myeongbogeul bimnida)
Italian: Riposi in pace

Fallen To Dust - Schulich Singers conducted by Jean-Sébastien Vallée

Directed by Alain Cazes with Mcgill Wind Orchestra

Something Of The Marvelous - Fanfare For Wind Orchestra - 2016

Performed by Ellen McAteer, soprano, and Rachael Kerr, piano.

Poem by Emily Pauline Johnson
Music composed by Kit Vaughan Soden

Fire-Flowers, Performed by Ellen McAteer, soprano, and Rachael Kerr, piano

A dream within a dream - redpath hall

Overture: Voyaging through Time's dark branches to the lucid stars
Performed by the McGill Symphony Orchestra, directed by Alexis Hauser, February 15th, 2020. Mix and Mastering: Ausma Lāce.
Composed by Kit Vaughan Soden, in fulfilment of the Andrew Svoboda Prize in orchestral composition.
This is to be an orchestral Overture to a future three-act opera for full cast, chorus, and orchestra. The First Act of the opera was commissioned by FAWN Chamber Creative, with a Libretto by David James Brock, premiered May 24th, 2019, as part of Pandora.

Overture: Voyaging through Time's dark branches to the lucid stars

Kit Vaughan Soden is a composer, researcher, and music educator based in Montreal, QC, Canada. He is currently pursuing a PhD in composition at McGill University, studying with John Rea, Philippe Leroux, and Stephen McAdams. He is a student member of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT) and the Music Perception and Cognition Lab (MPCL). Kit is currently working as a research assistant for the Haute École de musique de Genève (HEM) as part of the International Analysis, Creation and Teaching of Orchestration Project. His recent compositions commissions include a choral piece for the Schulich Singers and a monodrama for the Opera from Scratch workshop in Halifax. He is currently composing a short opera for three voices and chamber ensemble for FAWN Chamber Creative in Toronto, Canada.

As a composer, Kit is inspired by the interaction and relationship between timbre and expressivity in music, and particularly in the use of orchestration to enhance the dramaturgy of a composition. His doctoral thesis and research creation project(s) will identity and explore the acoustic phenomena created through the combination of voice and orchestra, highlighting how composers can exploit our innate perceptual mapping of vocal and instrumental timbres to build dramatic and expressive qualities into their music. These topics represent some of the composition and research considerations that fuel his passion for learning and for exploring composition at an advanced level.

Kit Vaughan Soden

Popular tracks