24-Hour Sound Installation launched
7th Jun 2010
Category: Other News
Combining pre-recorded readings and music with a live performance of Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas by John Taverner, UK-based early music vocal ensemble The Clerks is launching its 24-hour sound installation in Milton Keynes from 18 to 19 June. It will take place at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone, starting at 9pm the first night.
Dubbed ‘The Hours’, it uses pre-recorded and live music drawn from the world’s religious traditions of daily prayer in order to reveal links between different religions as well as celebrate the diversity of the globe’s many faiths. In addition to music, there are also prayers and meditations woven into the sound collage. Some of these will be pre-recorded in workshop sessions while others will be recorded during the presentation itself.
‘The Hours is about the rituals of prayer which are maintained around the clock, around the world – a continuous, never-ending cycle,’ said Edward Wickham, artistic director of The Clerks. ‘At the heart of the project, therefore, is a full recitation of the Book of Psalms, that magnificent anthology of sacred songs which is revered by all the Abrahamic faiths, recorded in over a dozen different languages. But The Hours has also become a monument to its own process of creation – a record of its own journey. So we have contributions from community choirs, schools, friends, colleagues and fellow musicians.’
A flexible work, ‘The Hours’ consists of a number of thematically linked panels which can be added or removed so as to produce a work lasting six, 12 or 24 hours. In the final two hours, the pre-recorded performance will culminate into a live one of Taverner’s piece.
‘The Hours’ is the third and final project of ‘Raising Voices,’ an Arts Council-supported programme that has included educational and community-related activities. Other projects included ‘Qudduson,’ a collaboration with Middle Eastern singers and ‘The Clerks Songbook’ which commissioned poets to write new lyrics to Renaissance songs.
Formed at Oxford University, the Clerks made their professional London debut in 1992.
