The 14 Récitations were composed by Georges Aperghis in 1982 and represent a veritable tour de force in the contemporary literature for solo voice. According to the composer, the basic idea of Récitations was to work with syllables and phonemes as if they were notes or pitches, i.e., using the building blocks of language to create melodies. In Aperghis’ own words, “A moment I love very much in listening to music is when we don’t have time to think about what is actually happening. The speed of the music, of the acoustic happenings, is higher than what our brain is able process. As if languages, words and syllables would be living their own life on another level than the logical functioning of the brain. So if this music works out as it should, we first feel something and start to think about it only later on, like the way we perceive colors and objects in our childhood or the way we dream.” The text of Récitation 9 chosen for the evening reads: “Parfois je resiste à mon envie vé san tujé parfois je lui cède. Pourquoi donc ce désir.”

the coquetteries (2015) was composed by Laurie Schwartz for Sharon Kivland’s “The Natural Forms, Part II.” and developed in close collaboration with vocalist and performer Anna Clementi. The work, which is an amalgam of musical and physical gesture, draws both inspiration and source material from the fascinating multi-referentiality of Kivland’s art – with musical cells and text fragments tracing back to the tracts of her installation as well as that wonderful French Agit Disco mix-tape, considerations on the nature of duration, the construction of gender, stereotype… and the subversion thereof.

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