Premiere of new work spanning 600 years of music
Posted on 30 March 2009
In the piece, Dufay’s work has been left intact, but it is now complemented by entirely new composition
Dr Ambrose Field
Being Dufay is a new work by Dr Ambrose Field, a multi-award winning composer, and features singing by celebrated tenor Dr John Potter, both from the Department of Music. It brings together fragments of work by early renaissance composer Guillaume Dufay with new music created using the latest technology.
It will receive its UK premiere on 2 April with a live performance in Leeds in an event organised by Opera North. When performed live the piece is accompanied by a specially-commissioned video by artist Mick Lynch.
Dr Field said: "I was asked to write a piece for a music festival in Vigevano, an Italian town with a 15th Century fortress at its heart but surrounded by modern buildings. I wondered how that arrangement would work musically and that’s how this project started.
"In the piece, Dufay’s work has been left intact, but it is now complemented by entirely new composition."
The premiere of Being Dufay coincides with the publication of a new book, by Dr Potter, charting the history of tenor singing from the 16th Century, when singers were first identified as tenors, to modern day performers such as Il Divo.
Tenor: History of a Voice is the culmination of four years’ research which has revealed major changes in the way tenor singing is regarded as well as the development of the technique itself.
Dr Potter said: "In some ways, tenor singing has gone full circle. Tenors would once have been carried through the streets by crowds after a performance but in the 20th Century audiences started to consider their performance in more artistic terms.
"We have now reached a point where the biggest stars are spending very little time in opera houses but are singing arias from classical opera and recent pop songs to filled stadia."
The book is published by Yale University Press on 1 April.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- Being Dufay is released by ECM records. More information, including an audio excerpt and a clip from the specially commissioned video, is available at www.beingdufay.com.
- More details about Tenor: History of a Voice can be found at www.yalebooks.co.uk.
- The University of York’s Department of Music is recognised as one of the most innovative in the country. It places a strong emphasis on performance and stages an extensive programme of recitals by staff, students and visiting musicians every year.
- Twitter users can now keep up to date with news from the University of York at twitter.com/UniOfYork.