Songs in Surround

Anna Clyne “Pocket Book VII and LXV” were composed for eight amplified voices, completed in 2015. She drew her inspiration for Pocket Book, a commissioned work by the American Roomful of Teeth, from Shakespeare’s sonnets VIII and LXV.

Pocket Book VIII is a setting of his eighth sonnet, “Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly”. This opening line is sung as a prelude to the remainder of the sonnet, which is whispered to capture the intimacy that characterizes Shakespeare’s sonnets. A slowly moving harmonic progression is sung whilst the text is recited, and the music ends with one single note – alone.

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970) is an American composer who gained worldwide acclaim with his Virtual Choir project, bridging the gap between his music and a global audience through social media. For the first Virtual Choir, he invited singers from around the world to record themselves performing a vocal part from his composition Lux Aurumque. Following a conducted recording of Whitacre himself, hundreds of submissions were blended into a single virtual choir—a concept that has since inspired similar projects worldwide.

Lux Aurumque—meaning “light and gold”—is based on a poem by Edward Esch. Whitacre had it translated into Latin and set it to music as a serene, flowing soundscape. The voices intertwine effortlessly, creating a warm, luminous texture, like the first rays of sunlight dissolving the darkness.