This soaring exploration of devotion, passion and exquisitely close harmony rises effortlessly and astonishingly, bridging the 12th Century and the 21st in ecstatic celebration of the life and work of luminous visionary and composer, Hildegarde de Bingen. The extraordinary vocal constructions of composer Laura Moody are breathed into glittering life by vocal trio Voice, against a visual pattern of nature, colour, light, and the kaleidoscopically repeated images of the performance itself, created live by projection artist Innerstrings.
Where to go for your first show after lockdown? A church venue like SJE is a good choice. Here the audience can sit in calming ecclesiastical space under a dramatic painted vaulted ceiling in carefully distanced seats, each marked “anonymous donor” as if a name were arrogance or extravagance. Laura Moody and Voice Trio’s fearless exploration of the life and work of great abbess, mystic and composer St Hildegard of Bingen joyously fills this beautiful space. Emily Burn, Victoria Couper and Clemmie Franks balance vocal fireworks with exquisite tone and reach to create a haunting evocation of times before, of passion refracted from the depths of a glittering well.
Revered as a saint for centuries, Hildegard of Bingen was only canonised in 2012. This performance mingles her own devotional compositions and creations with Laura Moody’s 'Hildegard Portraits', modern pieces of dazzling complexity. Innerstrings frames the voices with live lights and projections, splintered landscapes and plants flickering behind the performers, whose images loop, repeat, and mingle, creating a multifaceted and kaleidoscopic frame for the purity and clarity of the voices singing.
This is performance of multiple short pieces, gentle on lockdown frayed minds and ears. But at the culmination, oil projections flicker into life and the drift and drive of performance switches up into dizzying vocal climax, soaring, melismatic and magnificent.
The performance is currently streaming for free/donations at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uWez7-p4ls
