An illustration accompanying the original manuscript of Perle. It shows the main characters of the poem, the jeweller on this side of a river and his beloved 'pearl' on the other.

Musical topics, (self-)narrativity and adaptation in my recent composition Pearl

Matthew Kaner

This exposition charts the creation and musical-narrative structure of Pearl, my recent composition for symphony chorus, orchestra, and solo baritone: a setting of extracts from the medieval poem Perle, translated into modern English by Simon Armitage, commissioned as part of the BBC Proms in 2022.

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keywords:
narrative
composition as research
adaptation
practice research
lament
microtonality
medieval poetry
dream vision
topic theory
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Composition as Commentary: Voice and Poetry in Electroacoustic Music

Composition as Commentary: Voice and Poetry in Electroacoustic Music

Edmund Hunt

What is the role of a spoken or sung text in an electroacoustic composition? Does it represent anachronism, assigning the role of communication to the voice and thereby depriving more abstract electroacoustic material of its rhetorical force? Does the disembodied, electroacoustic voice distance the audience from the communicative power of the words that are heard?

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keywords:
Composition
contemporary music
electroacoustic music
voice
voice and electronics
composition process
composition as research
Old English
Literature
vocality
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