MEDIATHEK

Inquyre is an original work for SSAATTBB voices, choral ensemble, live interactive visuals, electronics, spatialised sound and light sculpture. The work itself is composed of 9 stages of music, set to a Libretto of poetry and 9 abstracted images. With an overarcing narrative based on the four themes Concealed/Revealed/Part/Apart, Inquyre is an exploration of scale and our position within it.

A live choral ensemble walk amongst the audience, the mobile aspect of the group and their intimacy with the audience designed to challenge the performative expectations of choral music. 16 omni-directional speakers hang down above the audience into the space, intertwined with interactive light sculpture. Each speaker produces one voice along with localised sound, allowing the audience to walk through the performance interacting with it temporally and spatially. This means that depending on where you stand, you can decide upon your own harmonic and melodic experience. We want to create an explorative space where each region of the room becomes a uniquely spatialised voice. This playful approach to vocal music is for audiences of all ages and music tastes; to experience a completely different treatment of the human voice and the choir as an instrument.

Projected visuals frame the space, created by the visual artist Frigge Fri (DNK), her work expanding upon the scale of ideas being considered and shared. Joined with the interactive nature of the lighting sculpture above the audience, the eyes experience is married to the ears, and the sound can be seen to move around the room.

The use of a libretto composed of abstracted images and poetry allows us the freedom as composers and designers to respond directly to motifs, without being too prescriptive about the presumed outcome and experience of the audience. This freedom to experience uniquely, allows for a more complete experience of the subject matter being explored. The work was then scored in graph form, where Intensity v Time images were shared with the audience and allowed them to predict in some way what was to come, again without being too prescriptive.

The purpose of creating an immersive experience like this was to surround an audience member in media that they then had limited control to experience on their own terms. By removing the front ended treatment of music, and shaping a world around the listener and viewer, the work immerses the audience member and induces a state of reverence.