"Bacchae" of Georgia Spiropoulos

The Greek première of Georgia Spiropoulos’ “Bacchae” is presented alongside another three of her works over a single evening. The common thread running through all the pieces is the human voice. Spiropoulos composes acoustic, electro-acoustic and mixed works in which she employs music technology. In her work, the avant garde meets oral tradition, and written composition the plasticity of the sonic phenomenon. Spiropoulos studied classical piano, jazz improvisation and advanced theory in Athens and composition, electro-acoustic music and form analysis in Paris. She has a master’s degree from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris, and is a winner of the Villa Médicis Hors les Murs award. She has worked as a musician and orchestrator in the sphere of oral music tradition, and as a composer-researcher at IRCAM, where she investigated ‘metamorphoses’ of the voice via computer. She also collaborates with a number of music groups, soloists and choirs in Europe, the US and Asia, from whom she has received a number of commissions. Her works are played at international festivals, and she is often invited to lecture on her work.

There will be a short pre-performance presentation of the works by Georgia Spiropoulos.

Program

"Brut"
"Saksti"
"Bouches"

Intermission

"Bacchae"

“Brut” is an electro-acoustic piece, written for an installation by Michel Nedjar and Allen Weiss dedicated to the Holocaust. Its materials are drawn from blues music (Billie Holiday, Odetta) and lo-fi recordings, sound artefacts that are reworked in “elemental” ways.

A piece for tenor saxophone and electronics, “Saksti” was written at IRCAM – Centre Georges Pompidou in 2001. It is like a game or wrestling match between the saxophone player and the saxophone itself, where the sound of the instrument intersects with sounds of the human voice.

“Bouches” is a piece for female voice, computer tape, and live electronics. It is a vocal cycle of four works, dedicated to the improvisatory and multi-phonic vocalist Demetrio Stratos, and rooted in the idea of vocal transformations. Obstinate rhythms and avant-garde rock vocals, an extended French lullaby, vocal interjections, phonations and imitations – a series of vocalized “rites” accompanied by computer-generated instruments. The work was commissioned by the GRM – French Radio, Ensemble 2e2m, and La Muse en Circuit.

“The Bacchae” is a solo opera for a vocal performer, computer tape, and live electronics. Based on Euripides’ tragedy of the same name, this piece by Spiropoulos constitutes a new reading of the ancient play that makes use of the very latest composition and orchestration techniques, but chooses to take a “minimalist” approach: a single performer – the multi-vocalist Médéric Collignon – is charged with performing all the roles, becoming, by turns, Dionysus, Pentheus, the Messenger, and Agave. A “vocal mask” forms the unique identifying characteristic of each role – a repertoire of distinct vocalizations and sounds specific to each character. The Greek fire rite of “Anastenaria”, and ritual laments (of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”) were used as music source materials, and constitute the “natural environment” from which this “Bacchae” sprang forth. “The rites of the world seem like a suitable vehicle for drawing close to the archaic,” notes the composer. The piece was commissioned by IRCAM – Centre Georges Pompidou, and first presented at the Festival Agora, Paris in 2010.