Duration – 12’45”
Recording – 2 channel version
Camera Cantorum presents a sonic analog of an array of old mirrors, each facet reflecting a different fragment of one of my previous pieces. Old mirrors become cloudy and warped (now magnified, now dim and faded). In this work the materials are often heard through a veil of distance. It’s dusk and you’re looking into an old mirror at the reflection of things that are far behind you. The experience of this work may be somewhat more opaque for those who do not know those compositions of mine from which I have drawn to make the current piece (they include,Life Studies #4 and #5, Sotto/Sopra for violin and computer, Pericolose, un gioro, bellezze, for soprano, choir, and computer). At the same time, those who hear this work first and at some later time hear the older ones, will hear those pieces somewhat differently than they would have had they not first heard Camera Cantorum.
Camera Cantorum was composed in 2000 in Seattle, USA, and Bourges, France. It was commissioned by the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges.
Richard Karpen 