To Jonty

At the turn of the 17th century composers in Venice were perfecting many years of experiments in spatial music. Their sonic laboratory was St Mark’s Basilica and the most famous and accomplished of them was Giovanni Gabrieli. Cori Spezzati is one of a series of works inspired by Gabrieli’s spatial music, including Canzon in Double Echo (2020) and Soundings (2025).

The title – literally “broken choirs” – refers not only to the distribution of musical material across multiple spaces, but also to the “brokenness” of some of the sound materials, whose distorted glitches and explosive discontinuities are the result of the failure of digital software. Since the piece was composed as the war in Ukraine was taking hold, these broken and shattered sounds became associated in my mind and with the daily news reports of broken bodies, broken lives, a broken international order. A question began to suggest itself: is it possible for broken choirs to sing together?

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Cori Spezzati was realized in 2022 in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of Bangor University (Wales, UK) and premiered on July 1, 2022 in the Elgar Concert Hall of the Bramall Music Building of the University of Birmingham, as part of the BEAST FEaST festival marking the 40th anniversary of BEAST. The piece is dedicated to Jonty Harrison on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

Premiere

• July 1, 2022, BEAST FEaST 2022: Concert 8, Elgar Concert Hall — Bramall Music Building — University of Birmingham, Birmingham (England, UK)

Awards

• Honorable Mention, 15th Destellos Competition 2024, Mar del Plata (Argentina)
• Mention, C (51-year old or older), 13th Biennial Acousmatic Composition Competition Métamorphoses 2024, Ohain (Belgium)