Lux Aeterna. Psalms of falling
Gyorgy Ligeti
Lux aeterna, for 16 voices (version for 12 voices and electronics)
Peter Kerkelov
phos-phorus, for vocal ensemble and electronics
Maxim Kolomiiets
Disappearing voices, for vocal ensemble and electronics on a text by Viktor Rekalo
Maxim Shalygin
Sub Rosa, for vocal ensemble and electronics on a text by Robert Frost
Alla Zagaykevych
Psalms of Falling, for vocal ensemble and electronics on a text by Iya Kywa
Olga Prykhodko
Author of the idea and producer
Maryana Shiposh
Project manager
The Lux Aeterna. Psalms of falling is a project about memory, fragility and infinity.
The memory of generations that lives in each of us.
The fragility of human life, which is interrupted so unexpectedly.
The infinity and continuity of all processes that surround us - people.
The Lux Aeterna. Psalms of falling was inspired by the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great inventor for new musical soundscapes, György Ligeti. The first part of the title of this project is a reference to Ligeti's masterpiece Lux Aeterna for 16 voices, a turning point in Western vocal music.
The main theme of the project is the memory of all the dead Ukrainian artists who became victims of the Russian war in Ukraine. Ukrainian and Bulgarian composers Maxim Kolomiiets, Maxim Shalygin, Alla Zagaykevych, Peter Kerkelov composed pieces for vocal ensemble and electronics as a dedication to the memory of these people. All four pieces take up’s Ligeti’s eternal music both musically and in terms of content and show the many facets of contemporary Ukrainian music. Each of the composer use the electronics in his own way – this include combination of voice and tape, the combination and search for live timbres, the constructiona of a new timbres based on data synthesis, electronic vocie processing in a real time, etc.
In this project Alter Ratio presents Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna in version that replace four of 16 voices with electronics—also as a symbol for and in memory of the missing voices of teh Ukrainian artist and people killed during the war.
Choreography
performance
Joint project of the vocal ensemble Alter Ratio and Victoriia Vitrenko.
Choreography is an original vocal and choreographic performance to the music of Ukrainian composer Sviatoslav Lunyov, in which the language of dance is born through the interaction with vocal and ensemble singing techniques.
Artistic director and producer of the project
—Olga Prykhodko
Meredith Monk
A Celebration Service
Joint Ukrainian-American project by vocal ensemble Alter Ratio and Meredith Monk / The House Foundation for the Arts.
The project was supported by the United States Embassy in Ukraine on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
The project was supported by the United States Embassy in Ukraine on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
The vocal and choreographic performance A Celebration Service reproduces a unique atmosphere of combining the spiritual and the physical through the connection of singing, dancing and the play of light and shadow. This journey into the world of spiritual traditions of different cultures is unlimited in time. In this "holiday service", written in 1999 before the new millennium, Meredith Monk combines singing and singing, dancing and reading from Buddhist texts, Hasidic sayings, Zen poetry and Christian prayer.
The international format of the project made possible the joint staging of the performance, the exchange of experience between American and Ukrainian artists. The collaboration was joined by director Tom Bogdan and choreographer Allison Easter, who are members of Meredith Monk / The House Foundation for the Art and Meredith Monk`s Vocal Ensemble. The project involved leading Ukrainian artists in the field of contemporary art: Vocal Ensemble Alter Ratio (artistic director—Olga Prykhodko), Sed Contra Ensemble (artistic director—Andriy Merhel), jazz singer Nazgul Shukaeva, light artist and set designer Dmytro Kostyuminsky, video artist Alina Fedotova.
Musical-theatrical performance based on David Lang's «The little match girl passion»
Project by the vocal ensemble Alter Ratio with the participation of director Dmitry Kostiyminskyi.
Performance strangely intertwines horror and beauty. The main heroine is a girl, she goes the way of total lack of money of the family, bullying of her peers, incest and father’s violence. Going an unbearable path to the desired life, she dies from cold, drug overdose and indifference of the surrounding society. The dance appears here both at the level of modern plastics and in the rhythm of the vocal line. And in it rejection is no less than the desire for unity. "In this performance we do not play, we do not depict. We are ourselves, we are each of you. This Passion for indifference, for cynicism and loneliness in society "
David Lang: «I wanted to tell a story. A special story: the story of a girl with matches of Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. It's like a kid's tale. As in many famous stories for children, there is a shocking mixture in it: a terrible plot and moral. The poor little girl who is beaten by her father on the eve of the New Year unsuccessfully tries to sell matches on the street, nobody pays attention to her, and she dies from the cold on the last evening of the old year. On this path, she somehow preserves the Christian purity of the spirit».
David Lang equated the suffering of the freezing girl to Christ. By combining Hans Andersen's fairytale girl with matches with the church genre, he brought her thinking to a new level—comprehensive, humane, painful, social and super-actual.
Visionaries of Sound
Steve Reich / US "Proverb" based on the texts of Ludwig Wittgenstein, for five voices, two vibraphones and two electric organs (* Ukrainian premiere)
Maxim Kolomiiets / UA "Gli sguardi pigri" based on the text by Tristan Tzar from the opera "Espenbaum" (Osokore) (2003/2018), for female ensemble a cappella
Anna Korsun / UA / DE Landscapes (2014), for five votes
Oleksiy Retinsky / UA / AT (born 1986, Ukraine) suite from the play "Iphigenia in Tauris" on the texts of the ancient tragedy of Euripides (2015), for female voices and percussion instruments
Maxim Kolomiiets / UA "Gli sguardi pigri" based on the text by Tristan Tzar from the opera "Espenbaum" (Osokore) (2003/2018), for female ensemble a cappella
Anna Korsun / UA / DE Landscapes (2014), for five votes
Oleksiy Retinsky / UA / AT (born 1986, Ukraine) suite from the play "Iphigenia in Tauris" on the texts of the ancient tragedy of Euripides (2015), for female voices and percussion instruments
Maxim Shalygin / UA / NL "Oil upon your shore", the text based on the libretto by Charles Genens of the oratorio GF Handel "Israel in Egypt" (2019), for the choir a cappella (* Ukrainian prem 'era)
Beat Furrer / AT / CH "Enigma" on lyrics by Leonardo da Vinci (2006/2015), for choir (* Ukrainian premiere)
Alfred Schnittke / RU Concerto for choir a cappella based on lyrics by Grigor of Narik.
Beat Furrer / AT / CH "Enigma" on lyrics by Leonardo da Vinci (2006/2015), for choir (* Ukrainian premiere)
Alfred Schnittke / RU Concerto for choir a cappella based on lyrics by Grigor of Narik.
The Visionaries of Sound project is dedicated to the decade of founding vocal ensemble Alter Ratio. The concert program is based on the main creative credo of the group—promoting the new Ukrainian and European vocal, ensemble and choral music. The concert program includes premieres of both young Ukrainian composers and leading composers of contemporary European and American music.
One of the motives that unites all the works in the program are allusions or very specific "mentions" of different historical epochs. Steve Reich's Proverb, as he said, is the result of a study of the work of Perotin and representatives of the Notre Dame school; Beat Furrer`s works «Enigma» voiced the prophecies of Leonardo da Vinci; Alexei Retinsky wrote works on the original ancient Greek text of the tragedy of Euripides, using reconstructed modes of ancient Greek music.
Each of these works in one way or another "expands" the possibilities of the human voice and gives the choral sound of supernatural qualities. Anna Korsun went the furthest in her work Landscapes—she used an incredible palette of extended vocal techniques. In Maxim Kolomiiets`s and Maxim Shalygin`s works harmonious and timbre techniques make the vocal ensemble sound like various instruments, or an orchestra, or create the illusion of electronic sound.