Vox Sanguinaria (2010)

Kyle Bartlett

In a number of significant ways, I have written Vox Sanguinaria twice. The first time was centered around my charismatic friend Cara Reynolds and an important event in her life. When I went to learn the actor’s part for the counter)induction concert “DRAMA:Music and its double” (September 24, 2010, NYC), I was not convinced at all by my own work. When she performed it, she inhabited the piece completely and made it necessary. When I was doing that part, it felt like retro, sub-Berio vocal kitsch. I took the opportunity to find my own image of necessity, where the unusual vocal techniques I wanted to use would be aesthetically required. I don’t know how I got the idea, but it came to me that just as dreams have their own logic which is meaningful inside the dream, but not in the conscious world, maybe dreams could have their own language as well, perfectly intelligible in the dream world, but requiring translation for simple woken people to understand. In this piece a woman travels back and forth to the world of dreams to deliver a message, “translating” her experiences there for the audience.

Performers are counter)induction plus Matthew Gold on percussion and me with the voice.