A circular ring of 8 or 16 loudspeakers around the
walls of a gallery surrounds the audience who may be
comfortably seated (or lie down) in the middle. The
continuously looping soundscape program is as follows:
Part 1: The Island
a journey in six scenes from
the Shoreline, up the Singing River, to the Well, then the
windy Tor, through the Night Forest (with crickets), and
finally to the Opposite Shore. Duration: 19’ (Island)
Part 2:
Chalice Well
a journey inside the well, through a variety of
underground chambers with rushing and falling water, including
the Chamber of the Feminine Spirit, the Glass Chamber, the
Entrance to the Underworld guarded by the Holy Grail, and
finally the Chamber of Repose. Duration: 14:20 (Chalice
Well)
Part 3: The Abbey
an
imaginary choral performance inside the medieval Glastonbury
Abbey (destroyed by Henry VIII) featuring a choir of
counter-tenor, alto and bass singers, whose voices are not
only reverberated in the cathedral acoustics, but provoke
ghostly after-images. Duration: 15:30 (Temple)
Part 4: Prospero’s Voyage
We return
to the Island which is now the magician Prospero’s which he is
about to leave after invoking a spell. He leaves underwater to
the farthest point of the human imagination. Duration: 16:00 (Prospero's
Voyage)
Please contact the composer (truax@sfu.ca) for more information
and performance materials.
