Unsettled Choruses: A Terrain of Humming and Phonetics 1930–1974, by The Astra Choir

Unsettled Choruses: A Terrain of Humming and Phonetics 1930–1974

by The Astra Choir

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

includes PDF liner notes

Purchasable with gift card

$9.99 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of Unsettled Choruses: A Terrain of Humming and Phonetics 1930–1974 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 4 days

Purchasable with gift card

$15.99 USD or more

1.	Pauline Oliveros: Tuning Meditation 05:25	buy track
2.	Kenneth Gaburo: Psalm 02:56	buy track
3.	Ernst Toch: Gesprochene Musik (Spoken Music) I 02:40	buy track
4.	Ernst Toch: Gesprochene Musik (Spoken Music) II 01:54	buy track
5.	Ernst Toch: Gesprochene Musik (Spoken Music) III 03:10	buy track
6.	Kenneth Gaburo: Humming 01:41	buy track
7.	John J. Becker: Missa Symphonica: I 01:59	buy track
8.	John J. Becker: Missa Symphonica: IV 02:14	buy track
9.	John J. Becker: Missa Symphonica: V 02:32	buy track
10.	John J. Becker: Morning Song 07:36	buy track
11.	Kenneth Gaburo: Laetentur Caeli 00:44	buy track
12.	Kenneth Gaburo: Terra Tremuit 01:01	buy track
13.	Kenneth Gaburo: Ad Te, Domine 02:50	buy track
14.	Ernst Toch: Gesprochene Musik, simulated Grammophonmusik version I 01:35	buy track
15.	Ernst Toch: Gesprochene Musik, simulated Grammophonmusik version II 01:05	buy track
16.	Ernst Toch: Gesprochene Musik, simulated Grammophonmusik version III 01:53	buy track
17.	Ruth Crawford: When, not If 02:31	buy track
18.	Stefan Wolpe: Dust of Snow 02:20	buy track
19.	Robert Erickson: Do It 11:28	buy track
20.	Peggy Glanville-Hicks: Three Madrigals I 02:03	buy track
21.	Peggy Glanville-Hicks: Three Madrigals II 01:34	buy track
22.	Peggy Glanville-Hicks: Three Madrigals III 01:57	buy track
23.	Pauline Oliveros: One Word: Sonic Meditation 07:00	buy track

about

*** Works by John J. Becker, Ernst Toch, Ruth Crawford, Stefan Wolpe, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Robert Erickson, Kenneth Gaburo, & Pauline Oliveros ***

Unsettled in more senses than one, these fourteen choral works, reaching across the central third of the 20th century, represent some special moments in the story of music for voices, and within the creative musings of their composers. Generations later, they remain as outliers, but also as bearers of central truths about musical materials of their times, evading common categorizations—radical or moderate, experimental or formalist, Stravinsky or Schoenberg.

The eight composers are eminent figures—each represented in other productions of New World Records. Their pieces here, however, have found no settled place in the choral culture, let alone in recordings—excepting Pauline Oliveros’s Tuning Meditation and Ernst Toch’s Geographical Fugue. Yet there could be something special about these choral cases. In their individuality and diversity—a small cauldron of mid-20th-century energies—they might raise questions still not settled in our 21st century. At the least, they seem to offer fresh experiences among the more conventional tonalities of recent choral creation, and the more uniform notions of what constitutes good choral sound.
Since the earliest chant, choral singing has been poised between two poles of expression, both of great interest to modern composers: a meditative state of pure sonority—humming, melismas on vowels, drones—and a discursive state of phonetic movement—words projected through collective utterance.

Through our fourteen choruses, emanations from the poles of humming and phonetics lead to a sense of musical ‘language’ itself in a state of re-thinking, not by notions of post-tonal styles replacing 19th-century harmonic grammar, but more by combinations of different sonic materials available on the terrain—chromatic, 12-tone, modal, neo-classic, noise, drone, sound poetry. This is choral music “unsettled” by its own times and embracing the situation with creative enthusiasm.
—John McCaughey (from liner notes)

credits

released March 3, 2023

The Astra Choir, John McCaughey, conductor
(with Warren Burt, speaker; Joanne Cannon, bassoon, contrabass sarrusophone; Chloë Sobek, violone; Nic Synot, double bass; Alexander Meagher, percussion; for Robert Erickson’s Do It)

license

about

New World Records Brooklyn, New York

Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc., which records under the label New World Records, was founded in 1975.

We are dedicated to the documentation of American music that is largely ignored by the commercial recording companies.

contact / help

Contact New World Records

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Unsettled Choruses: A Terrain of Humming and Phonetics 1930–1974, you may also like:

Electronic Music from the Eighties and Nineties
by Carl Stone

supported by 9 fans who also own “Unsettled Choruses: A Terrain of Humming and Phonetics 1930–1974”

The real title of this album is "Carl Stone songs you can cry to." Sonali will make you dance, I guess, but then you'll start crying again after that. Paul Klee
go to album
Number Pieces
by John Cage / Apartment House

supported by 9 fans who also own “Unsettled Choruses: A Terrain of Humming and Phonetics 1930–1974”

perfectly calm - it sobers the mind Tim
go to album
Performances & Recordings 1998-2018
by Charles Curtis

supported by 8 fans who also own “Unsettled Choruses: A Terrain of Humming and Phonetics 1930–1974”

Sounds like lines. Conducive to bringing out the unknown forms that lurk in our minds. sylvain-levier
go to album
Black Mountain Songs
by Brooklyn Youth Chorus

The celebrated youth chorus performs songs commissioned for members of The National and Arcade Fire. Bandcamp Album of the Day May 17, 2017
go to album
Learn To Swim, A Mixtape
by Joshua Idehen

featured on Bandcamp Radio Dec 12, 2023
go to album
Just A Little Lovin'
by Mocky

featured on Bandcamp Radio Dec 5, 2023
go to album
Electronic Music from the Seventies and Eighties
by Carl Stone

supported by 8 fans who also own “Unsettled Choruses: A Terrain of Humming and Phonetics 1930–1974”

All the fun throwing-it-against-the-wall-seeing-what-sticks experiments. Dong Il Jang tries 15 ideas and 3 of them work, Shibucho (ultimate brain tickler) tries 15 ideas and 12 work, and Shing Kee just works forever into the infinite annals of your memory Paul Klee
go to album