LONESINGNESS
EXAUDI:
LUCY GODDARD: Mezzo-soprano
DAVID de WINTER: Tenor
JAMES WEEKS: Piano and voice
ABERDEEN ARTS CENTRE
Friday 23rd October 4pm
Exaudi is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles for new music. Founded by director James Weeks and soprano Juliet Fraser, it is based in London and draws its singers from among the UK’s brightest vocal talents. The soundfestival were fortunate indeed today to have three of Exaudi’s
members actually present on the stage of Aberdeen Arts Centre to present a programme of contemporary, mostly vocal music, designed for ‘refinding connections and bridging distances in a time of isolation’ as the sound programme promised.
Today’s programme presented the works of eight different composers including Exaudi’s director James Weeks who presented three of his own piano compositions to punctuate the performance. Were these really three, or could they be bound together as one? Their titles were even here I, II and III. These solo piano pieces had a sparseness to them as did many of the vocal works, however this does not mean they were simple. In the piano pieces in particular, moments of silence were as important as the music and were carefully measured out. The three pieces had often single repeated notes but harmonies were also brought in. I particularly liked the third piece in which the piano sounded like chiming bells, just one to begin with, but then several, building up the harmonic language you get from chiming cathedral bells.
The concert began with Ear for EAR by John Cage in which Lucy began with a kind of solo vocalise leading to David who used more advanced vocal techniques in which every vocal sound whether derived from vowels or consonant sounds had no meaning but were made to count for the essence of the sounds themselves.
The work that gave the concert its overall title was lonesingness by the Greek composer Zesses Seglias. This was performed by David and was followed by The Gentlest Chord by the Canadian composer Barbara Monk Feldman, performed by Lucy. Lisa Robertson from the West Highlands of Scotland, now working in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow was present in the Arts Centre to hear her piece Almost performed by Lucy and David. The two voices created some fascinating chordal effects together.
A Bird in the Beast by the American composer Michael Pisaro from Buffalo in New York brought together all three performers including spoken words and finally singing by James Weeks. All the performers had spoken sections and they came together as counterpoints to the singing. The text was Shakespeare’s sonnet No. 65.
In Black ink by Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith had a soaring sinuous vocal part for Lucy with, for James, a piano part that seemed to follow on very nicely from his piece, even here III.
The final item was entitled Devotion by the Boston based composer Rodney Lister. It featured both Lucy and David with James on piano. The piano part was sparse but the vocal melody had an almost folk-like appeal.
Some of the music might have seemed over simple but it is far from that. The performers have to be able to count because, as I said, silences were every bit as important as sounds. They also needed perfect pitch, I would have thought, in order to come in on the exact notes and to deliver very difficult harmonies correctly. This was a fascinating programme – very much what sound is really all about. Advanced vocal techniques like repeated F sounds or breathing are absolutely important just for their inherent sound qualities. This was a splendid performance from Exaudi and we were so lucky to have them in Aberdeen.
