Vaai Irandu
for solo voice__7'__2009
2ndPrize at the SOCAN Young Composers Awards 2010 (Godfrey-Ridout category)
PROGRAM NOTE
This short vocal piece explores the timbral and polyphonic potential of the human voice, as evoked in the Tamil title
Vaai Irandu, which means Two Mouths
The first mouth's material is inspired ragas of South Indian Carnatic music, namely Kalyani, Thodi, Shankarabharanam, Abhogi and Saveri. Melodic fragments and gamakas (ornaments) from these ragas are developed in sequence to construct what we could call an imaginary "metaraga".
The second mouth consists in percussive phonemes, superimposed to the melodic line of the first. These clicks and ejective consonants gradually reveal an arithmetical rhythmical construction typical of Carnatic percussion figures.
PERFORMANCES
May 4, 2017 WINNIPEG (Canada) Monde - Groundswell / Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall, U of W
Sarah Jo Kirsch (voice)
October 12, 2014 WROCLAW (Poland) ISCM World Music Days 2014 / Oratorium Marianum
Agata Zubel (voice)
March 10, 2012
MONTRÉAL (Canada) Ateliers et mini-concerts Génération 2012 / Salle de récital du Conservatoire de musique de Montréal
Michèle Motard (voice)
June 18, 2011 MONTRÉAL (Canada) Bruissements du Cercle / Espace Cercle Carré
Michèle Motard (voice)
March 4, 2010 QUÉBEC (Canada) Microphone Songs, ECM+ and Proxima Centauri / Café-spectacles du Palais-Montcalm
Michèle Motard (voice)
March 3, 2010 MONTRÉAL (Canada) Microphone Songs, ECM+ and Proxima Centauri / eXcentris (salle Cassavetes) CANADIAN PREMIERE
Michèle Motard (voice)
January 22, 2010 BORDEAUX (France) Métissage, ECM+ and Proxima Centauri / Théâtre des Quatre saisons
Michèle Motard (voice)
January 21, 2010 BORDEAUX (France) Métissage, ECM+ and Proxima Centauri / Théâtre des Quatre saisons WORLD PREMIERE
Michèle Motard (voice)
CREDITS
Commissioned by ECM+ (Ensemble contemporain de Montréal), for mezzo-soprano Michèle Motard.