Music in the University 2015-2016 in association with Sound
By Reason of Darkness by Phillip Cooke
KIng's College Quad, Aberdeen
Thursday, 22 October 2015
It’s late October and time for another sound Festival to get underway. The University of Aberdeen were hosts to the opening performances on Thursday with two, or if you count the different groups in the Chapel, three exciting and totally contrasting musical experiences to launch the Festival.
The opening performance was the World Premiere of a new commission by sound from Phillip Cooke - a new choral work entitled By Reason of Darkness. But this was no ordinary choral work! To begin with, it took place outside, in the Quadrangle, through the archway and at the side of King’s College Chapel where the later performances were to take place. There were more than twenty singers in a choir that included many students as well as members of the “community choir” specially brought together for the event. They were conducted or should I say guided and steered by Kathleen Cronie, currently a master’s degree student in conducting at the University. Adding to the sound palette and also very cleverly giving the notes to the singers was percussionist Staš Hable playing tubular bells.
The singers were arranged in different groups, more or less in a circle surrounding the conductor and the bells. Soloists, mostly sopranos with fine strong clear voices acted as group leaders pushing the text forward from various points on the circle. The range of vocal sounds was astonishing, ranging from heavy breathing, in or out, blowing, shushing or a kind of whirring, to vocal solos or full rich harmonic singing. Some of these effects are not entirely new but the extent and placing of them within the piece certainly was.
The vocalisations suggesting winds worked so well as illustrations of the text taken from the book of Job: “Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north – with God is terrible majesty”. The full choral climax of the work was all the more powerful set against the dry wind sounds that had gone before. I thought the choir dealt with the unusual requirements of the piece tremendously well.
What was really special though was the outdoor setting of the performance. It worked brilliantly with our real North-East wind adding just a touch of its own voice to the performance and the coming twilight over the King’s Quad adding more than a touch of atmosphere to the music. It was spine tinglingly exciting – a fantastic start to sound 2015!
