What? No bass!

When Janet Oates approached me to write something for the inaugural concert of Philomel, my first reaction was shock at scoring a piece for six sopranos with no other voices or instruments. What was I going to do with no bass and a limited frequency range? As I imagined the sound swirling round my head, the possibilities multiplied. The revelation of the first performance being in the generous acoustic of the Brunel Tunnel Shaft then opened up the ability to use the resonance of the building to add upper and lower harmonics to the six voices. Night Song emerged as a multi-textural evocation of the loneliness of the central character, with harmonies built on layers of polyphonic lines. I was rewarded at the premiere hearing rich sonorities, with the six sopranos sounding like a multitude of voices. I am now looking forward to exploring the sonorous possibilities of this unique ensemble further with Rhythm Herd.