Swallows of Salangan
The Astra Choir with soloists and instrumental ensemble conducted by John McCaughey
“…we, like Salangan swallows, built the world – an enormous nest, put together from the earth and sky, life and death…”
Concert 6
Sunday 29 November, 5:00 pm
<p>The Carmelites<br>214 Richardson Street<br>Middle Park</p>
Tickets
For tickets call Astra on (03) 9326 5424, or
Concert Head:
Morton Feldman, The Swallows of Salangan (1960)
Concert Support:
choir with 5 flutes, 5 trumpets, 2 tubas, 2 vibraphones, 2 pianos and 7 cellos
and works by
Concert Head:
Ockeghem, Josquin, Stefan Wolpe, Robert Carl, Will Ogdon, Pauline Oliveros, Warren Burt, Livia Teodorescu-Ciocănea, Dan Dediu
The words of Boris Pasternak inspired the title and character of Morton Feldman’s most adventurous choral creation, rarely heard in the 55 years since its composition, and not performed outside the USA until 2014. A freely-advancing procession of chords from the chorus is set among a myriad of instrumental sounds, in striking formations of colour, including 7 cellos and 5 trumpets.
With this concert, the Astra Choir prepares the first-ever recording of The Swallows of Salangan for New World Records, in a program that suggests the vastness of its context. The works move between the sacred domain of the performance space itself and varied texts of “earth and sky, life and death.” The kaleidoscopic Mass in Any Mode from the 15th-century composer Johan Ockeghem is joined by the lament on his death by his greatest student Josquin de Prez. Morton Feldman’s own teacher Stefan Wolpe is represented by solo trumpet and in a choral setting of Robert Frost. Warren Burt’s textless Elegyfrom 2013 is heard alongside the wordless choral Sound Patterns from the 1960s by of one of his former teachers, Pauline Oliveros.
With this concert, the Astra Choir prepares the first-ever recording of The Swallows of Salangan for New World Records, in a program that suggests the vastness of its context. The works move between the sacred domain of the performance space itself and varied texts of “earth and sky, life and death.” The kaleidoscopic Mass in Any Mode from the 15th-century composer Johan Ockeghem is joined by the lament on his death by his greatest student Josquin de Prez. Morton Feldman’s own teacher Stefan Wolpe is represented by solo trumpet and in a choral setting of Robert Frost. Warren Burt’s textless Elegyfrom 2013 is heard alongside the wordless choral Sound Patterns from the 1960s by of one of his former teachers, Pauline Oliveros.
From the Chicago architect Louis Sullivan, mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright, texts about Nature and urban creation are heard, in the first complete performance of three choral settings by the Connecticut composer Robert Carl. From contemporary Romania, Livia Ciocănea sets a luminous seasonal carol by Vasile Voiculescu, and Dan Dediu’s theatrical Perla takes us via Rilke’s “language of the fish” to Hölderlin’s post-linguistic “pearl in the depths of the sea”.
