Ekphrastic Song
We took the idea of ekphrasis and applied it to a vocal improvisation after the first episode of The Choral Commons podcast, featuring a conversation with Jeremy Haneman about choral work with refugees and forced migrants in London.
The word ekphrasis comes from the Greek for the description of a work of art produced as a rhetorical exercise, often used in the adjectival form ekphrastic. It is a vivid, often dramatic, description of a visual work of art, either real or imagined.
The sung text is excerpted from the first episode of the Choral Commons podcast, and Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” shuffling up statements about how non-marginalized people view marginalized people, how conductors view the role of choirs, how musicians see the purpose of an audience.
Michael Genese, VOICES 21C
VOICES 21C Contributors to this project:
Chris Clark - Jesse Colford - Eugenia Conte - Mary DiRoberts - Bradford Dumont - Lauren Extrom - Elise Felker - Michael Genese - Carey Shunskis - Krystal Morin - Ofri Tanchelson - Magdalena Tang