Physica, a Composition for Women ´s Choir and Live Electronics
Joel W. Matthys · OhioLink ETD Center (Ohio Library and Information Network) · 2013
Physica is a four movement choral composition for SSAA women's choir and computer.The text is drawn from the writings of two female medieval mystics, Hildegard of Bingen (1098 AD -1179), and Julian of Norwich (1342 -1416).Three excerpts from Hildegard of Bingen's text Physica form the core of the first, second, and fourth movements, while excerpts from Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love appear in the third movement and juxtaposed against the Bingen text in the first movement.The work explores the unique way these women have described the natural world, by turns familiar and archaic, whimsical and prophetic.The music pays homage to Renaissance chansons and madrigals, particularly the works of composers Clément Janequin and Carlo Gesualdo, through the use of imitative counterpoint, text painting, and onomatopoetics.The computer part is triggered and synthesized live, with harmonies and textures derived from recordings of the text, and is executed in the software environment Pd-extended using my own version of the RTcmix computer music language embedded as a compiled external.As the piece progresses, the text is increasingly distorted to reveal the harmonies of the piece, and to emphasize the great emotional and intellectual distance between these two medieval women and our modern selves.