Tania Candiani

Household Requiem is based on written descriptions of the sounds heard during confinement in the pandemic, and also of the inner sounds we hear from inside the body and head. Although the sensations described on which we based the taxonomy the was the vertebra of this requiem were written by the members of the choir, we realized that they are related to all of us in many latitudes. These are common frequencies that connects us all, with uncertainty, grief, strangeness, but also with care, live, home, solidarity, life.

The piece was composed by means of a sound score, which the members of the choir listen to through headphones as the same time as they sing. The score is a sequence of notes, sounds, noises and indications that guide the performance of each singer during the piece. This system of real-time creative time allows a hyper-polyphonic control of the ensamble as well as highly complex vocal morphologies that would be extremely difficult to notate and perform if they had been written in a traditional score.

This piece is composed in response to the pandemic, and the lives that have been lost since 2020. It brings together the inner and external sounds of the lockdown in a composition about grief and unity.

This presentation is part of the closing reception for the BioBAT Art Space exhibition Common Frequencies