Les voix humaines

CHOIR + VIOLA DA GAMBA

Inspired by the solo viol piece of the same title by the French composer Marin Marais (1656-1728), Les Voix Humaines is a collaboration between SANSARA and the renowned viola da gamba player Liam Byrne.

The combination of voice and viol is central to much early music from across Europe: this project seeks to investigate and deconstruct this relationship by performing new works for choir and solo viol which draw on the notion that the viol was the instrument closest to replicating the subtleties of the human voice.

We were due to premiere this project with SJE Arts in June 2020. Unfortunately, we were forced to postpone and have refocused our efforts to produce an EP featuring new works for choir and viol by Anna Semple, Piers Kennedy and Alex Mills. We look forward to performing the programme live in our 2021-22 season.

trailer

liam byrne

Liam Byrne spends most of his time playing either very old or very new music on the viola da gamba. An obsession with the instrument’s most obscure 16th and 17th century repertoire is a recurring theme in his work, whether in devising baroque performance installations for the Victoria & Albert museum, or in collaboration with the Appalachian fiddler Cleek Schrey, or creating new electronic works with Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurðsson.

Liam’s solo performances frequently combine old viol music with new works written for him by composers such as David Lang, Nico Muhly, and Edmund Finnis, among many others. His membership in Icelandic record label and artist collective Bedroom Community has led to the release of two massive studio-based works: Donnacha Dennehy’s 40-minute long Tessellatum for multi-tracked viol and viola (with Nadia Sirota), and Valgeir Sigurðsson’s Dissonance, a 23-minute deconstruction and explosion of a Mozart string quartet using many layers of Liam’s improvisation.

In June 2017, Liam was commissioned by the Victoria & Albert museum to create a site-specific sound installation for their new Courtyard Gallery, which resulted in the 8-hour long piece Partials, an exploration of the space’s resonance derived entirely from upper partial harmonics played on the viol. In 2015 Liam also collaborated with Nico Muhly on a sound installation for the National Gallery’s Soundscapes exhibition, and in 2016 was commissioned by the Dulwich Picture Gallery to make an immersive work in their Mausoleum, in response to two 17th century paintings by Gerrit Dou.

Over the years, Liam has worked closely with a wide variety of musicians, from Damon Albarn to Emma Kirkby, and is a frequent guest of new music ensembles Stargaze, the London Contemporary Orchestra, and Crash Ensemble. With a background in Historical Performance and degrees from Indiana and Oxford Universities, Liam has played and recorded with many of Europe’s leading Early Music ensembles, including the Huelgas Ensemble, Dunedin Consort, The Sixteen, i Fagiolini, and the viol consorts Phantasm, Concordia, and most notably Fretwork, with whom he toured and recorded extensively for several years.

support

This project is supported in part by The Golsoncott Foundation

Project Patrons
Margaret Bullard
Régis Gautier-Cochefert