***Winner of King's Singers New Music Prize, Jury Special Commendation***
SATB (divisi) | 6:15
In this alluring, meditative text, Rev. Dr. Malcolm Guite urges us to "become an open singing-bowl," suggesting that we nurture a restorative, quiet space within us. How do we do this? By beginning "the song exactly where [we] are." When shall we do this? With the "very breath [we] breathe in now."
Musically, this piece explores the structure of a singing bowl itself: it begins on the sharp edge of the bowl with buoyant, rhythmic music, then slips down into the resonant interior of the bowl, and finally climbs back up to the other edge. Further, the sonorities in the piece are based on the acoustic properties produced by singing bowls.
Many thanks to Sound of Ages (Kameron Kavanaugh, director) and Nightingale Vocal Ensemble (Benjamin Perry and Laura Nevitt, co-directors) for excellent in-person and virtual premieres of this piece.
(Dance by SALT Contemporary Dance, Joni MacDonald choreographer)