[ g o d b l e s s ]
for SATB choir
5'
[god bless] is a piece scored out for solo soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Musically, the piece details between three main sections or contexts; The Head, the Narration and the Scene. Through different vocal gestures, some musical, others not, the narrative develops segmentally in a linear - non linear fashion. the narrative surrounds a deranged murderer, obsessed with the church and its beliefs bringing him to the point of carrying out what he believes is "gods work". The narrative is told from three contexts that sometimes overlap and envelop into a new detailed context showing the psyche of the killer. It could also be analysed on a simpler level detailing conscious and subconscious thoughts and activities.
Notational and compositional inspiration for this piece came largely from Luciano Berio. Certain blocks, notably C4, is greatly influenced by Berio’s Sequenza III for female voice. Notationally, it is quite evident of the inspiration but in other ways also. The idea of breaking down words into simple phonemes, vowels and consonants and utilizing them in a musical manner, as literary grains is quite an exciting and interesting topic worth looking into. Other inspirations were drawn from Sinfonia, Mvt III (1969) and that of the mad scene; “a scene in which the hero or heroine goes mad. Usually this madness occurs in dramatic scenes from opera and leads to tragic results. Temporary madness, whether fake or real, has a long literary heritage” (Edwards, 2004).
I would consider this piece to be a melodrama for its emphasis of ‘acting’ and spoken narrative. Viewing it as anything else would be obscene. The narrative develops through “scene contexts” and is reiterated again through spoken word narration. By doing this, the scenes are divided again into smaller blocks of what is real and what is in his head. The “head contexts” can give answers to the confusion or offer a second degree of instability and ambiguity to the piece and the contextual narrative. By the end, the realisation that occurs is that the only block logically fitting into the narrative is that of the murder scenes.
The breathing is controlled and slowly building up, this could be identified as part of the scene although I perceive it as being the subjects breathing. B1 shows a scattered radio broadcast, suggesting a blurring or perplexing narration, a narration from the subject’s perception. The DooWop sections seem to be a blatant change in the drama although it is later exposed that this is what he hears in his world. The horror scenes reveal violent scenes in which the ‘news reports’ that follow identify a continuing narrative. The prayer and church scenes imply a religious background to the character and these murders. The ‘tongues’ sections, inspired by Sequenza III represent what the killer hears talking to his victims. He views them as sinners and not worthy of living and in such can not communicate with them and perceives them to be speaking in tongues. The sermon starts out as demeaning and negative, but slowly develops into a rage filled speech or hatred and angst. Again, this is what the killer is hearing and seeing of this world. The narrative does not end, at this point the killer remains unknown and on the run.
I would like to revise this piece, add more detail into the notation and instructions of certain sections. I would also like to play around with the idea of notating the rhythm for “un-musical” blocks of the song, like the news reports or radio broadcasts. The idea of Sprechstimme would be fun to play around with, especially in use of going back and forth between scenes of conscious and subconscious thought. I think what would really make this piece great would be to invite actors into it. I feel by doing that, it allows for more ‘musical’ gestures performed by SATB as well as developing [god bless] into more of a performance piece.
(analysis of interest and dynamic in relation to contextual narrative)
for SATB choir
5'
[god bless] is a piece scored out for solo soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Musically, the piece details between three main sections or contexts; The Head, the Narration and the Scene. Through different vocal gestures, some musical, others not, the narrative develops segmentally in a linear - non linear fashion. the narrative surrounds a deranged murderer, obsessed with the church and its beliefs bringing him to the point of carrying out what he believes is "gods work". The narrative is told from three contexts that sometimes overlap and envelop into a new detailed context showing the psyche of the killer. It could also be analysed on a simpler level detailing conscious and subconscious thoughts and activities.
Notational and compositional inspiration for this piece came largely from Luciano Berio. Certain blocks, notably C4, is greatly influenced by Berio’s Sequenza III for female voice. Notationally, it is quite evident of the inspiration but in other ways also. The idea of breaking down words into simple phonemes, vowels and consonants and utilizing them in a musical manner, as literary grains is quite an exciting and interesting topic worth looking into. Other inspirations were drawn from Sinfonia, Mvt III (1969) and that of the mad scene; “a scene in which the hero or heroine goes mad. Usually this madness occurs in dramatic scenes from opera and leads to tragic results. Temporary madness, whether fake or real, has a long literary heritage” (Edwards, 2004).
I would consider this piece to be a melodrama for its emphasis of ‘acting’ and spoken narrative. Viewing it as anything else would be obscene. The narrative develops through “scene contexts” and is reiterated again through spoken word narration. By doing this, the scenes are divided again into smaller blocks of what is real and what is in his head. The “head contexts” can give answers to the confusion or offer a second degree of instability and ambiguity to the piece and the contextual narrative. By the end, the realisation that occurs is that the only block logically fitting into the narrative is that of the murder scenes.
The breathing is controlled and slowly building up, this could be identified as part of the scene although I perceive it as being the subjects breathing. B1 shows a scattered radio broadcast, suggesting a blurring or perplexing narration, a narration from the subject’s perception. The DooWop sections seem to be a blatant change in the drama although it is later exposed that this is what he hears in his world. The horror scenes reveal violent scenes in which the ‘news reports’ that follow identify a continuing narrative. The prayer and church scenes imply a religious background to the character and these murders. The ‘tongues’ sections, inspired by Sequenza III represent what the killer hears talking to his victims. He views them as sinners and not worthy of living and in such can not communicate with them and perceives them to be speaking in tongues. The sermon starts out as demeaning and negative, but slowly develops into a rage filled speech or hatred and angst. Again, this is what the killer is hearing and seeing of this world. The narrative does not end, at this point the killer remains unknown and on the run.
I would like to revise this piece, add more detail into the notation and instructions of certain sections. I would also like to play around with the idea of notating the rhythm for “un-musical” blocks of the song, like the news reports or radio broadcasts. The idea of Sprechstimme would be fun to play around with, especially in use of going back and forth between scenes of conscious and subconscious thought. I think what would really make this piece great would be to invite actors into it. I feel by doing that, it allows for more ‘musical’ gestures performed by SATB as well as developing [god bless] into more of a performance piece.
(analysis of interest and dynamic in relation to contextual narrative)
