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Multiplicity
2022 - The University of Manchester, UK

collaboration with poet, Estelle Allen ‘Multiplicity’ is a song and score for vocal trio, made in collaboration with interdisciplinary poet, Estelle Allen.

The poem, comprising of three haikus and one katuata, takes direct inspiration from Matsuo Bashō’s mastery of association & inference, working closely with techniques of verbal linking (mono-zuke) and atmospheric association (nioi-zuke) to reflect on the role and pervasiveness of historical trauma in the subconscious mind. Musically, the careful assigning of scales and modes to the poem’s word groupings reinterprets Bashō’s technique of content-based connection, allowing text and sound to collaboratively enliven the contrasts so beautifully embedded within Estelle’s poem.  

Visually, the score’s illustrative markings offer a bridge between text and sound. In contrast to the original poem, light now pervades the darkness of the score’s surface, effacing the boundaries between past and present as they coalesce in the murk of the subconscious. 
2’35”
soprano, alto 1, alto 2

©2024 Helena Atkin