Harmonizing [artificial environment no.7] (2012)

for vocal ensemble and tape
2sop, 2alt, ten, bass, tape (12 minutes)

Commissioned and premiered by EXAUDI conducted by James Weeks.

Harmonizing (Artificial Environments No. 7) is actually the third completed set of pieces in a series of works that seeks to contextualize music and its processes, in this case the harmonizing (in 6 voices) of elements from field recordings. On a broader level, but in a very small and modest way, the work is an attempt to introduce the outside world into the contemporary music concert hall — the notion that an (almost) uncut field recording might provide the basis for a compositional dramaturgy lies at the heart of my aesthetic thinking. The recorded sounds in Harmonizing were captured in Umbria (Birdland), at the merry-go-round at London Zoo (William Tell) and in Brussels (Three planes). Many thanks to Els Viaene for donating the second of the plane recordings.