| Litany | 16' 47" | 2000 |
Litany (2000) was realised in the Electroacoustic Music Studios at the University of Edinburgh during 2000 as a piece to be performed as part of a concert of Scottish electroacoustic music curated by the composer at the Florida Electroacoustic Music festival.
For some time, I had wanted to make use of a number of source recordings I had made of the magnificent Rieger organ at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. I have a fascination with the consequences of the broader notion of the 'acousmatic': the idea of the hidden source. Much of the instrumental music listened to today has no palpable source, and we are quite happy to listen to music made available on CD, through broadcasts or on the Internet - music whose source cannot be seen. I wanted to investigate the use of 'real' instrumental sounds: those which betray their origins readily. In Litany they are utilised both in a tangibly instrumental manner and as the basis for the construction of new sounds (as traditional source material), yet their origins are still quite hidden and indeed the instrumental sounds are almost encapsulated by the electroacoustic world they are set in.
With thanks to Jeremy Cull (organ), Lucy Kendra (voice), Jim Lowe, Salyen Latter, Liz Ford and Pete Harvey (string quartet).