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MUSIC
THE BOOK OF NEVER (2017-2020)
Chorus (SSAATTBB)
31 min.
A choral cycle based on the Novgorod Codex — a book of Ukranian psalms from 999 A.D. overwritten hundreds of times with heretical sermons by an excommunicated Pagan missionary — built on echos of ancient hymn fragments, the first words of a now-forgotten language, a banished monk’s apocalyptic visions of a distant future, and scraps of text by contemporary writers in exile.
ECHOES OF ALWAYS (2018)
Fl, Hpd, Hrp, 2 Vln, 2 Vla, Vcl, Cb
9 min.
An orchestral entr’acte collaged from tiny moments of JS Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, various French Baroque opera overtures, and unmeasured harpsichord preludes by François Couperin, stitched together with scraps of Helgeson’s own previous music.
A WAY FAR HOME (2016)
Chorus (SSAATTBB), Org
10 min.
A tapestry of choral images that freely arrange the 1,451 words from poet Kazim Ali's English translation of Marguerite Duras’ proto-screenplay L’amour, loosely based on her youth as a colonial settler in Saigon and the France she “returned” to for the first time just as the Nazis came to power across Europe, each ravaged by occupation.
SNOW REQUIEM (2015)
Sop, Vln, Str Orch, Hrp, 4 Perc, Chor
20 min.
An anti-cantata based on author David Laskin’s account of the Children’s Blizzard of 1888. Combines fragments of Norwegian folk song transcriptions from the tralling and Hardanger fiddle traditions, as well as sonifications of weather data fashioned into clouds of orchestral noise and wordless vocal chorales.
TRANSCRIPTIONS ON LISTENING TO TIME (2010)
Fl, Ob, 2 Cl, Hrn, Tbn, Perc, Kbd, 2 Vln, 2 Vla, 2 Vcl, Cb
3 - 30 min.
A collage of field recordings from early 20th-century clock chimes, mechanical orchestras, and other musical machines, transcribed for chamber orchestra and repeated ad libitum in constantly changing combinations.
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