Rating: - Expect to be impressed
This is a composite requiem. All pieces add up to a reconstruction of Vespers for All Souls' Day (the feast for the dead) as it might have been heard in Cordoba Cathedral around 1570. The composers were selected for their possible connection with Cordoba Cathedral, or with Cordoba region generally. The sound is distinctly Spanish, characterized by open vowels and instrumental participation. The instruments, dominated by shawms, sackbuts and bajons, appear throughout the disc, including the chants. ... Read More
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Multiple Tongues (1999-): a series of pieces in which the spoken word is manipulated by computer so as to preserve the voiceprint of the speaker while commenting on the text itself. Sections thus far: I jusKidding (voice Helen Kidd); II Songs and Dreams the Whalers Weave (voice Keith Jebb); III Három Denevér (voice Rita Várhegyi); /IV withdrawn/; V ...al tempo dei dolci sospiri... (voice Erminia Passannanti)
Three Versions of Appreciative (2002) computer-generated settings of texts by Mary Oliver
Something, Forgotten (2003) for erhu and soprano; text Toby
Olson
CDs released by VHF (USA), Rhizome (Australia), Electroshock (Russia)
Past and future appearances at festivals in Australia, USA, UK, Lithuania, Finland, Canada and New Zealand; grants and residencies from Southern Arts (UK), Lapp Arts Council (Finland) etc.
Life
Simon Wickham-Smith was born 41 years to the day after Richard Maxfield, the pioneer of experimental electronic composition, which maybe placed him in a position to absorb a little of the Great American’s spirit.
Wickham-Smith’s output consists of electronic music, mainly making use of computer software (either other people’s or, more recently, his own SuperCollider programs) to manipulate samples into new forms. Much of his output is concerned with stillness and stretched material - the length and the static nature of the work is his main musical interest.
Wickham-Smith has no formal training, either in instrumental or compositional technique. Influences range from David Behrman and Eliane Radigue to Guillaume de Machaut and Cheb Khaled, to Morton Feldman and Tibetan Buddhist chanting.
