What would inspire you to think about multiple voices as a compositional option? Tina Davidson

What would inspire you to think about multiple voices as a compositional option? Tina Davidson

Tina Davidson It’s not always been this way, but lately, and with each new choral piece I write, I sink more and more into a sensuous world of sound bordered by language. It’s a love affair that started about 6 years ago when I was commissioned to write a work using ancient mystical texts. I… Read more »

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NewMusicBox Staff



Tina Davidson

It’s not always been this way, but lately, and with each new choral piece I write, I sink more and more into a sensuous world of sound bordered by language. It’s a love affair that started about 6 years ago when I was commissioned to write a work using ancient mystical texts. I soon found that composing for chorus is like trying to sail across the ocean with only the stars as guides. Without much internal bearings, the voice needs navigation points to move quietly in reference to others. The delight is to find a way to bring the chorus suddenly to a place where they find their bearings in a sea of resonant, glowing harmonies. Setting text is also an intimate, tender affair; I must live between verbal meaning and sound, between the head and the heart, and intertwine them together. It is no wonder, when I am called out of my studio, I am many times stuporous and only half-awake.

Tina Davidson is currently writing a large work for chorus based on the writings of Teilhard de Chardin, commissioned by Phillip Brunelle’s VocalEssence