Re:Sound Migration 2016

Restaging Cordelia, my composition for Erik Ehn‘s play for Theatre of Yugen (2011, which casted Cordelia as a phantasmagorical Noh warrior) with four musicians and three performative filmmakers performing in an abandoned ammunition magazine as hundreds of thousands of birds pause briefly on their migration.

I wrote the piece for a hyperlocal, idiosyncratic Noh chorus and hayashi ensemble (Noh-bayashi 能囃子) of bass flute, piccolo snare, sruti box and voice. The Re:Sound edition focuses on two sources for the original composition: Peter Brook’s King Lear and that other dad, and will be a work-in-progress showing of kono shimai tachi [ these sisters ], a multi-channel interpolation of two contemplations of young women: Shakespeare’s / Ehn’s Cordelia (King Lear) and Harper Lee’s Scout (To Kill A Mockingbird).

These separated literary characters met as while I was composing Yugen’s score, creating a charged palette of text, sound, cinematic artifact and private anguish. In collaboration the Re:Sound ensemble, Cordelia and Scout finally convene in a complex, layered meditation. Monochromatic, textured and distressed, the film is built from recontextualized content and found footage.

The performers for Re:Sound:

• Steve Adams, Bass Flute
• Alfonso Alvarez, Performative Projection / Sruti Box
• Dyemark, Performative Projection / Sruti Box
• John Hanes, Piccolo Snare
• Dana Iova-Koga, Movement
• Shinichi Iova-Koga, Movement
• Katherine McDonald, Voice

It’s a two-day festival with a distinguished roster. I am grateful to be included. See it all.