A Babboon’s Blood (2022)

This was originally a 3 minute piece entitled “The Spell” inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in particular Act 4 Scene 1, where the witches chant the recipe of a potion they are preparing for a spell. This piece was submitted into the Studio 2022 program of The Choral Collective and accepted for further development, along with three other composers’ works. Recorded live with ten voices.

The narrative arc of the piece follows the witches attempting to cast a spell. They fail twice before succeeding. ‘Succeeding’ in this case is finding the note F# at the end of the chorus (in the correct context). Each attempt is a stanza followed by the chorus (‘Double double…’). The three stanzas all begin in the same harmonic space, and each stanza is harmonic repeat of the previous stanza, though getting longer each time and modulating to new tonal centres in these extensions. This is analogous to a trauma victim repeatedly re-enacting a traumatic experience, trapped in a loop, until it can be transcended. Thus, the ‘No’s after the first attempt should be expressing confusion. The ‘No’s’ after the second attempt should be expressing frustration. The ‘Yes’s after the third attempt should express triumph.

credits
released March 27, 2023
This piece was performed by the ten-voice choir, Vanguard Consort, at Old Customs House in Fremantle on the 15th of October 2022. . The performance was also filmed and can be found here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu4r5S64NHA
license
all rights reserved