All the ends of the earth / The Sun Also Rises
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An excerpt of For Magister Leonin by Garrett Sholdice, performed by Ergodos Voices
An except of Sonate by Garrett Sholdice, performed by Maya Homburger and Barry Guy.
Ergodos is currently seeking bookings for its tour of North America between 4–13 February 2011. Ergodos offers an evening length programme in two halves, consisting of the music of Garrett Sholdice and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly.
This is work that celebrates communal and individual effort, optimism and ancestry. But most importantly, we celebrate beauty.
Part I – 35 minutes
All the ends of the earth is an act of homage. Garrett Sholdice frames his own compositions – each based on portions of the eighth-century plainchant Viderunt Omnes – with his own arrangements of starkly beautiful two-part organa by Léonin, a composer active in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris in the twelfth century. A former cathedral chorister, Sholdice has an intuitive feel for the restrained majesty of Medieval cathedral music. His own music presents a single idea in continuously changing light, using Medieval techniques as a vehicle to a personal voice.
Part II 70 minutes
The Sun Also Rises is a meditation on optimism. A work by Benedict Schlepper-Connolly, it features settings of a text from Ecclesiastes in an affirmation of what American poet Frank O’Hara might refer to as the ‘continuity of things’: ‘One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.’ The music speaks in a language of resolute beauty; sometimes cathartic, sometimes violent, sometimes fragile. Echoes of American minimalism are frequent, both in the pulsating piano chords that permeate the score, and in the searingly beautiful repetitions of melody. Instrumental movements are interspersed with vocal interludes and occasionally accompanied by a oceanic wild track, recorded in the northwest of Ireland. Silent films and 8mm footage from the composer’s childhood augment the music and place a subtle narrative at the work’s core.
Ergodos Voices is a young, brazen, all-amplified female vocal ensemble with experience ranging from early music to musical theatre. Ergodos Orchestra, a flexible ensemble, featuring luminaries of the Irish classical and contemporary scenes. The use of the word ‘orchestra’, despite the make-up of the ensemble, is deliberate and congruent with our themes: we lay the emphasis on the historical sense of the word, with its associations of communal activity, rather than the modern understanding.
Download the PDF for more information, or contact Garrett Sholdice (garrett@ergodos.ie / +44 788 1975632).