Famídoté

For TTBB choir. Duration - 5 minutes.

Program Note:

This piece was specifically written for a concert theme of “the sounds of silence.” When considering how to represent non-sound with sound, I had a great discussion with a dear friend who reminded me how much music relies on silent communication. As a composer, my work is trapped on paper or on screen unless it’s brought to life by collaborators. Those performers bring a wealth of skill and artistry to interpreting silent dots and lines on a page, and communicate with each other on stage with subtle glances and precise movements. Finally, any meaning the audience finds in my music is unique and personal to each of them, with every reaction being perfectly valid. Performers creating music and meaning out of silent notation is what this piece is ultimately about. The text is entirely solfège, meaningless “do re mi” syllables corresponding to pitches. Using this offers another opportunity for composer-audience communication, allowing listeners to hear how the music is constructed as it moves along – we can hear “fa mi do” being passed around all the voice parts and so forth. Maybe the solfège even becomes a sort of nonsense language, a thought I’ve extended to the title.

Commissioned by Constellation Men’s Ensemble for their third annual NOVA new-music series, February 2019, Chicago, IL.