VOICES AND ELECTRONICS
Usas (Dawn) (1986)
for Electric PhoenixS, Ms, T, B, tape and live electronics
Text: Rig Veda (Sanskrit) Duration: 15 minutes
Commissioned by Electric Phoenix
First performance: June 1987, Almeida Festival |
Séance (1996)
for soprano solo, MIDI vibraphone,
chorus and live electronicsDuration: 40 minutes
Project for 1995/6 Arts Foundation Electro-Acoustic Fellowship
First performance:
September 1996,
MUSICA Festival, Strasbourg
Françoise Kubler,
Emmanuel Séjourné,
New London Chamber Choir,
James Wood
|
|
Séance, like most of Wood's works, testifies to a great deal of ethno-musicological enquiry (his note refers us to Indonesian trance music and Balinese fire music) and considerable ambition of structure and scale. Though a continuous span lasting some 40 minutes, it numbers five linked movements with interludes, invocation and coda; and the theme is number itself, the movements with their diverse religio-philosophical texts examining the mystical and occult symbolism of (respectively) numbers one, two, three, five, eight: first five of the already symbolic Fibonacci Series. The whole amounts to a re-creation in terms of impassioned musical geometry of an actual séance... it was invigorating, unusual, and, not least in the microtonal, decreasingly audible ascent to paradise at the end, often profoundly compelling.' Paul Driver, The Sunday Times, 17.11.96
|
|
|
programme note
Jôdo (1998-9)
for solo percussion, high soprano and electronics Duration: 40 minutes
First performance: November 13, 1999, Oxford Contemporary Music
Sarah Leonard, Kuniko Kato, James Wood |
The Great Imperial Concubine (1999)
for high soprano and electronics
(Jodo - Part 3)
Duration: 9 minutes
First performance: November 13, 1999, Oxford Contemporary Music
Sarah Leonard, Kuniko Kato, James Wood |
Choroi kai Thaliai (Revels and Dances) (1982)
for solo percussion, solo soprano and tapesee under Voice and Percussion |
Opera Orchestra | Large Ensemble | Chorus and Ensemble Chamber | Instrumental | Unaccompanied Voices Voice and Ensemble | Voice and Percussion Percussion Ensemble | Solo Percussion
Chronological List of Works
Music Store Availability News Programme notes [pdf] JWE-Index
|