A few months ago I reviewed a recording of Morton Feldman’s Three Voices which I had never heard “live”.  On Sunday evening I got the chance to hear Lindsay McIntyre perform it at Arrayspace.  It’s a roughly one hour long piece in which the soprano performs with two tracks that she has recorded in advance.  It was really interesting to hear the nuances of two recorded voices versus live which, of course, doesn’t really come across the same way on a recording, however good.  It’s the subtlest of textural difference but it’s definitely there.

Soprano

Two pre-recorded tracks

It’s also a piece that feels different when heard in a performance space (even a tiny one) with other people.  It’s an hour long and it’s a kind of meditation on the text “Who’d have thought that snow falls/snow whirled nothing ever fell” or rather fragments of that text which feel rather like a mantra.  It’s quite quiet and doesn’t have a huge dynamic or tonal range which just enhances the meditative effect.  The text doesn’t even kick in in a recognisable way until almost half way through.  Until then the vocalist(s) is/are singing individual syllables.

Lindsay’s performance was excellent.  The live part was precise and the recordings (and the audio equipment) were very good so the live/recorded difference was super subtle.  It was a very interesting and enjoyable experience..