Jenny and Alison featured on this CD by Felicity Wilcox which was released by MOVE records in 2022.
Reviewed by Michael Hannan, Loudmouth, January 2023
Threading the Light is a major work (around 50 minutes in duration) in four movements: “Light”, “Water”, “Blood” and “Fire”. The composer identifies these elements as commonly associated with ritual. The piece was completed and recorded in 2012 as what Wilcox calls “the cornerstone work of my PhD in composition”.
A unique feature of the scoring of the work is Wilcox’s creation of an “electronic instrument”, based on recordings she made of percussionist Michael Askill’s large collection of Himalayan singing bowls. She recorded Askill playing the bowls, both “singing” them and striking them in various ways; and then she electronically processed these source recordings into a series of pitches and complex timbres in “just intonation” that could be mapped onto a controller and played live. Wilcox includes spectrum analysis charts of a selection of the singing bowl samples in her booklet notes. She also identifies one key aspect of the composition of the work as the blending/contrasting of the equal temperament tunings of the conventional instruments and voices with the just intonation tunings of her electronic instrument.
The sung texts of the work come from Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist, Jewish, and Christian sources. Two of the Christian texts are prayers written by the composer’s brother.
The unique sound world of the work is immediately evident in the first movement, “Light”. A few tam tam strokes blend into a pulsating continuous singing bowl drone texture creating a serene accompaniment for the introduction of a contralto vocal interpretation of Vedic Sanskrit “Gayatri mantra” the first line of which translates as “We meditate on the glory of sacred light”. The melodic line is slow and limited to just a few notes, harmonious with the drone. Basically the first, second and first degrees of the C major scale prevail.
Struck singing bowl tones combine with repeated drone-based repeated string chords to underpin the baritone setting of the Islamic “Al-Nour” (The Light), the text translating as “Allah is the light of the heavens and earth, Light upon light”. The prevailing repeated strings chordal texture then accompanies the soprano setting of the Buddhist “Lama Surya Das” sung in English: “May the lamp of love, Which eternally burns above, Light divine fire in our hearts”.
After all these calm and static textures, the strings, still sticking to the basic notes, are given more active textures, and work up to a climax roughly half way into the movement.
A return to the ethereal singing bowl sonorities lays the foundation for a series of stringed instrument solos. Then there is a reprise of the settings of the three texts, accompanied by fast and furious string ensemble textures, leading to a climax with the sung texts superimposed.
A coda of heavily processed singing bowl sounds contrasts dramatically with the drone and limited intervallic basis of the rest of the movement.
Movement II, “Water” has a lot of the sustained singing bowl drone elements of the opening movement, but the tonal language is expanded. At the outset the singing bowl tones are joined by sustained violin tones with some portamento inflections. Loud percussive punctuations occur approximately every fifty seconds. Then a band of string ensemble clusters precedes a new section, also for strings, which is based on a five-note ground bass in 5-4 metre, the first overtly metrical texture in the work. This serves as the background for a cello solo based on the tone set {C, D flat, E flat, G flat}, and then, by extension, the introduction of the first vocal setting of the movement. The driving, dramatic setting for contralto and baritone of several lines of Psalm 23 in Hebrew uses the same melodic shapes as the cello solo.
The accompaniment returns to sustained drone textures for the setting of one of Gavin Wilcox’s prayers as well as a Buddhist blessing and healing chant, the first scored for soprano, and the second for contralto and baritone. A pulsating and mesmerising texture of singing bowls concludes the movement.
Movement III (“Blood”) adds yet another dimension to the musical language of the work. It begins with an expressionistic cello solo lasting almost one and half minutes. The solo cello continues in an accompaniment role for the setting, for baritone and contralto, of the Sanskrit “Twa Meva Mantra” (A translation of the last line is “Thou art my everything Light of all lights”). An energetic metrical setting of the same text follows with all three singers accompanied by percussion and dissonant high strings gestures. A brief return of the singing bowl drone idea plus light cymbal percussion, underpins th setting for the three singers of a textual fragment, “sanguis cruor” (“blood, blood”). The vocal and percussion instrumental arrangement builds momentum, and at five minutes into the track, a strings and percussion accompaniment is added which drives the vocal melange towards its climax. Knowing that Felicity Wilcox is an experienced scene composer, I couldn’t help hearing this instrumental backing as underscore for an action scene in a movie.
Movement IV (“Fire”) begins with an extended exploration of the singing bowls, both their singing qualities and the sonorities of the various pitches when struck. What impresses me about this three-minute introduction is the composer’s creation of an exquisite heterophony between the bell-like sounds of the bowls and her delicate violin scoring involving tremolo, portamenti and other subtle instrumental techniques. A rising scale of all the singing bowl pitches is a cue for an impassioned violin solo, beginning with a reiteration of the scale. This develops into a more elaborate texture of singing bowl and strings sonorities.
The first text setting of the movement is of Gavin Wilcox’s prayer which ends with the prophetic line “I am but a breath of wind that soon will pass”. However this text is superimposed with a Spanish Christian text “Saeta A Nuestra Sra De Los Dolores” (“Here comes the Lady of Sorrows”) and the setting is supported by a forceful slow common-time strings and percussion accompaniment over a drone bass building to a dramatic climax.
As with movements I and II, where there is a coda that focuses on drone-based sonorities, this movement includes a coda with a compelling combination of singing bowl sounds and strings textures.
The composer has assembled a brilliant cast of performers for this project. It is difficult to find any fault with any of the players. The singing and instrumental performances are simply superb.
One criticism is that the CD has only one page of information about the piece and the performance and production credits. However, here is a digital CD booklet available for viewing or download at the following URL:
http://www.move.com.au/disc/threading-the-light
All in all, Threading the Light is a tour de force of composition and performance, combining extraordinary sonorities with a passionate expression of spirituality.
Highly recommended.
Michael Hannan
This review first appeared in Loudmouth, January 2023