#3788: Works for Voice and Electronics

Listen to music for voice and electronics, including the latest from composer Ted Hearne, The Source, a music theatre/vocal piece based on the story of Chelsea Manning – the U.S. Army intelligence analyst formerly known as Bradley Manning who was responsible for delivering thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks. The repetitive, fragmented, and layered texts draw from military logs, the writings of Chelsea Manning, files, testimonials and other primary sources, and sung by four singers whose voices are processed in real time, giving them an almost auto-tuned pop music effect (a la Kanye West or Cher), that comes off as something way more sinister. This latest work seems to be at least a close cousin to Hearne’s scathing Katrina Ballads, which also included primary source material, like President George W. Bush’s infamous quote, “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.”  Hear “s/as a boy/as a boy,” and “[A young boy released several pigeons],” featuring singers Mellissa Hughes, Samia Mounts, Isaiah Robinson, Jonathan Woody, and Nathan Koci leading a rock-chamber ensemble which includes including a keyboard sampler.

 Then, listen to music from another composer in the Sleeping Giant collective, the Brooklyn-based composer Jacob Cooper, and a movement from his song cycle, Silver Threads, also featuring singer MellissaHughes.  There’s also music from a chamber opera for solo voice and electronic sound by Frances White, She Lost Her Voice That’s How We Knew. It’s a collaboration with soprano Kristin Norderval and Valeria Vasilevski, who directed and wrote the libretto, and features Elizabeth Brown's shakuhachi playing as part of the electronic score. Plus, hear an early work by Paul Lansky, a single poem by Thomas Campion read six times, where each time, there is different processing on the voice. 

The collaborative work, "She Lost Her Voice That’s How We Knew" will be performed at Spectrum in New York next week, on Wed., Oct 28^th,2015.   

PROGRAM #3788 Voice + Electronics (First Aired 10-22-2015)