One of the things that initially attracted me to writing for massed voices was the fact that the human voice is an infinitely transmutable sound production utensil. One of my teachers at university referred to it as a “plasticine trombone” in a joking sort of way that was seriously accurate. The resonating space we produce vocal tone with and the aperture it uses when it leaves that space are more variable than any other instrument we make music with. Add on to that the phenomenon of language and the creative possibilities start to make the loins of wild haired mad scientist types quiver.
“Alouette Meets Her Maker” is the sort of choral piece I’ve wanted to write for a long time. It calls on singers to do things with their voices that fall well outside what they’re are accustomed to. They alter how their voices resonate to produce shimmering waves of harmonics, recite spoken text asynchronously, violently yank pitches between registers into amorphous cluster chords, giggle like they’re being tickled, and at one point bleat out a series of desperate SOS signals in Morse code.
And it works because I’m being very careful about when I’m pushing a vocal instrument out of its comfort zone. Despite what you might think (And what they might say in fits of violent protest), musicians like it when you push what they’re capable of. The trick is that when you’re pushing them in one direction you need to know for sure that you’re not also simultaneously pushing them in another one. THAT can be a frustrating experience for all involved.
The latest performance of this piece is being undertaken by a choir I’m grateful to count myself a member of, The Vox Humana Chamber Choir. We’re performing the piece next week at our annual concert at the Observatory in Victoria, BC. The event is a concert of cosmologically themed vocal music sung inside the steel dome that houses the Plaskett Telescope. Vox Humana was the choir that originally premiered the piece in 2019 and it’s since gone on to be performed around the world by many other choirs. It very much feels like the piece is coming home to me after being a way so long and I can’t wait to meet it again!
Chris Sivak | Composer 