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7
letters [film]
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| to concerts/programmes |
A
setting for eight unaccompanied voices
(perhaps the first-ever complete setting)
of the astonishing letters in the Book of Revelation
to seven early Christian churches....;
total duration: 30''
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Seven Letters is the latest substantial piece in a accessible,
yet challenging musical style developed over the last decade: stretching
individual vocal timbres and techniques within the context of a
polyphony that is rooted in the tradition of the Renaissance, and
at the same time decisively modern in its style and harmonic treatment
- in this case, of words which are 1900 years old. This series of
letters to the congregations of seven churches in Asia minor, or
what is now Turkey, are unique in their authorship and literary
style, and striking in their individual detail within what is clearly
a chronological and culminative structure. The sites of the seven churches are today as fascinating as they are diverse: a variety of ruins from the height of the ancient Mediterranean Empires co-exist alongside modern society at a number of levels. Ephesus is one of the most stunningly preserved towns from antiquity and is no longer inhabited except by tourists and those who earn their living from them; some of the other sites are obscure provincial towns with new Turkish names and a modern existence that seems at odds with, yet is connected to the glimpsed fragments of the past; the final site of Laodicea is, like Ephesus, now a complete ruin, but one bleakly devoid even of tourists, and where the nearby natural water supply is still sickeningly lukewarm - the adjective applied to the Laodicean Christians themselves. As a half-hour film, Seven Letters would be a combination of the newly-composed choral music and images from the sites, as well as the actual text of the letters (perhaps also the earliest extant manuscipts). There might be a spoken introduction from the island of Patmos where the Apostle John - around 96AD - received the visions that make up the Book of Revelation. copyright Antony Pitts 1998
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| to concerts/programmes | Anna's Rapid Eye Movement |