Re-imagining Plainsong – three new works
Author Identifier (ORCID)
Research Statement
Research Background
Drawing on the rich tradition of creating new musical works from pre-existing plainchants—especially Messiaen and the scholar-composers, Peter Maxwell Davies and Roger Smalley—three commissioned compositions extend previous creative research and offer new ways to work with the West’s oldest notated music.
Research Contribution
Three chamber works—scored for voices and a variety of instruments, both ancient and modern—total 21 minutes of music. Whilst all three works are linked through plainchant, each work also responds to a different stimulus/context. Ave Maris Stella [AMS] was written to accompany an exhibition by Islamic artist, Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Everything is True. Beata Viscera [BV] was written for a concert linking music to deep space, and Hymn to St Magnus [HSM] was written for a service to commemorate the centenary of Edith Cowan’s election to parliament. AMS juxtaposes notated music with improvisation and seeks to meld Islamic and Western traditions; HSM, as a starting point, subjects the twelfth century material to Romano Micheli’s seventeenth century theories perpetual canon; and BV develops Messiaen’s techniques of extending time, with special recourse to his Méditations.
Research Significance
All three works were commissioned by leading arts organisations. The Australian Baroque Orchestra, through a competitive grant from the department of Culture and the Arts, commissioned AMS and BV. The Choir, Sonus Angelorum, through the St George’s Cathedral Arts Foundation commissioned AMS. All three works were publicly performed by a collective of Australia’s leading musicians. BV was reviewed by Seesaw and the West Australian “drones enter and exit different sections of the ensemble to fuel a slow harmonic burn….The restless audience falls still in contemplation of the human and the eternal, the expansive vastness of whirling galaxies set against the ancient reverie of terrestrial song”.
Non-Traditional Research Output
Original Creative Work
Document Type
Non-Traditional Research Output
Date of Publication
2021
Location of the Work
Perth
School
Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts
RAS ID
43574
Event Title
The Brush and the Bow: music for the exhibition 'Everything is True' / Space Music / Edith Cowan Commemoration
Event Dates
March, 14; May 11, 2021; August 3-4, 7 August, 2021
Event Venue
John Curtin Art Gallery / St Georges Cathedral
Additional Information
John Curtin Art Gallery (Ave Maris Stella) concert as part of the exhibition Everything is True Perth Old Girls School (Beata Viscera) part of Australian Baroque’s Space Music concert St Georges Cathedral (Hymn to St Magnus)
Duration
21 mins
Comments
Smith, S. (2021). Re-imagining Plainsong – three new works. [Original composition and live performance]. Australian Baroque; John Curtin Art Gallery; St Georges Cathedral.