Ether-real Aria: Meditations on Euridice April 2014

A duet between my operatic voice and my Moog Etherwave theremin. The theremin creates an uncanny imitation of the vocal timbre. I exploit this in this aria.

The composition incorporates every notated ‘Euridice’ form Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice interspersed with meditative sections of free improvisation.

The idea of loss is expressed both through the content and the technique of the aria: – Orfeo’s longing for his deceased wife is realised through Gluck’s pitch choices (drops of minor sixths, for example) and the loss of physical contact is epitomised by the technique of playing the theremin – one does not touch it.

The meditative state I must enter into to simultaneously sing and play theremin is intense and, I hope, ethereal.