Their Lives Are Stripped of Meaning
This is a composition for instrument, voice and electronics, composed in 2018. Commissioned by Callum G'Froerer
A revised version for the US ensemble Loadbang, with voice and three instruments, was made in 2023, and includes the electronics part embedded in the score as fixed media.
PROGRAM NOTE
In 2016, Australian author Richard Flanagan made a statement in a response to the Australian Government’s policy on the treatment of refugees arriving in Australia by boat, which involves detention. "Their lives are stripped of meaning." In this piece, the vocalist sings these words, but they become incomprehensible as they are separated out over the 8 minutes of the piece; a direct reference to the indeterminate length of detention that Australia enforces upon refugees. Time passes, we forget and our ability to understand becomes difficult. In addition, the electronic part is created by sampling the instruments at certain moments in the piece, and strips away the timbral characteristics of the work, another metaphor for the consequences of this treatment of our fellow human beings.
PERFORMANCE INSTRUCTIONS
To perform this work, you will need the Decibel ScorePlayer, an application which presents the score on an iPad. You can download this from the Apple App store. The score file (with the extension .dsz) is AirDropped to the ipad, where it can be read for performance.
The electronics part is notated on the score. You can make your own electronics program to realise this, or use the MaxMSP patch attached here.
A PDFscore is available from the publisher, Material Press.
PERFORMANCES
Premiered by G'Froerer (tpt) and Olivia Stahn (voice) at the 'Pieta' concert, Ölberg-Kirche, Berlin May 2018.
Australasian Computer Music Conference, Tone List concert, Perth, December 2018 - by Dan O'Connor (tpt), Anika Moses (voice) and Stuart James (electronics).
University of Utah New Music Ensemble, feat. Meg Johnson, voice Steven Marz, French horn, Dec 2022.
Loadbang ensemble, TENOR Conference, Longy Institute of Music, Boston, USA, May 2023.
