Lorem Ipsum for spatialized choir

Commissioned by C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, with the assistance of the David and Minnie Berk Foundation and the Yale School of Music alumniVentures Fund Premiered by C4 on March 3, 2011, New York City Dedicated to Andy and Danae McKay

About the Piece Lorem Ipsum was completed in October 2010 in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is slightly over 5 minutes in duration.

Program Note I have always found voices singing words in a language I do not understand to be haunting and beautiful. Perhaps because I am paying more attention to the sound of the voice itself and not trying to follow the meaning of the poetry. When I compose for voice I usually use only vowels sounds or vocalize but recently have found that limiting. So I went off in search of a text with all of the timbral richness of speech but without an overt meaning. And then I found, in my computer already, the Lorem Ipsum text. The Lorem Ipsum text is a commonly used series of fragmented Latin words that has been used, possibly since the sixteenth century, to provide a ‘filler text’ during typesetting. Where text is visible in a document, people tend to focus on the textual content rather than upon overall presentation. Because it is ‘nonsense text’ publishers use lorem ipsum when displaying a typeface or design elements and page layout in order to direct the focus to the publication style and not the text itself. I am using it here for the same reason. Rather than focusing on the meaning of the words I wish to draw your attention to the sound of the words. The sound of the human voice itself.

Text Source It is not known exactly when the text acquired its current standard form; but it appears to have come from a fragmented version of Cicero’s treatise De finibus bonorum et malorum (On the Extremes of Good and Evil) written in 45 BC.

The text should be performed with standard Italianate Latin, or ‘church’, pronunciation. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Performance Notes SPATIALIZATION Lorem Ipsum is written for the singers to be spatially spread about the performance space, preferably surrounding the audience. The exact layout is will vary depending on the venue and is not important as long as they are evenly distributed throughout the space. Also the sections (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) should not stand together as would be the norm but instead should be separated so each soprano, etc. is in a different area of the space from the others. Balconies, lofts, etc. can also be utilized as well.