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Contemporary vocal music

Daryl Runswick selects well-known contemporary vocal music for musicians of all levels of experience

Daryl Runswick is the tenor singer and resident composer with Electric Pheonix. Two CDs of his music, including Mouth Symphony performed by a COMA ensemble, were released in 1995. His latest recording, Overlays, was released in 1999. He also writes for film and TV and is professor of composition at Trinity College of Music in London.

Electric Phoenix has been performing and commissioning new vocal music since 1978:

I have been singing with the group since 1983. Looking back at our repertoire it occurs to me that a small but significant proportion of it would be suitable for COMA members to have a look at.

I've included pieces of a wide range of difficulty and noted the level of difficulty of each. I've left out ones which require complicated electronics or tape playback (people interested in this aspect can contact me). Four pieces are designed for microphone performance (Not a Soul But Ourselves, Stimmung, Hymns and Variations and Lady Lazarus) but you could do all of these without. EVT means extended vocal techniques (vocal noise, speaking, whispering, overtone singing etc etc).

Solo voice

John Cage: Aria (publisher Peters Edition). Male or female singer. Graphic score which requires the singer to put on different voices. Not at all musically difficult. No recordings currently available.

Cathy Berberian: Stripsody (publisher Peters Edition). Male or female singer. Graphic score in the style of a strip cartoon (Zap! Vrooom! etc). Lots of fun, not musically difficult. Recordings available by Berberian herself.

Daryl Runswick: Lady Lazarus (publisher Faber Music). Female singer. Setting of Sylvia Plath poem. Designed for microphone singing (not essential). Score mixes conventional and new notations. Quite difficult. Some EVT. Recording available.

Four solo voices (SATB)

Roger Marsh: Not a Soul but Ourselves (publisher Novello). Setting of an excerpt from Finnegan's Wake. Designed for microphone singing (not essential). Moderately difficult but rewarding. Some easy EVT. No recording currently available.

John Cage: Solos for Voice 93-96 (also called 4 Solos for Voice: publisher Peters Edition ).

Improvisation piece obeying simple rules as to pitch, style etc. Not musically difficult, lots of fun, and very funny. Recordings available.

Henri Pousseur: 5me Vue sur les Jardins Interdites (publisher Edizioni Suvino Zerboni, Milan). Conventionally-notated piece of extreme beauty by this important Darmstadt composer, contemporary of Boulez and Stockhausen. Very difficult, but anyone wanting to experience a little-known but towering masterpiece would find their efforts repaid. A version for saxophone quartet also exists. No recording available.

Giancinto Scelsi: 3 Canti Sacri (publisher Editions Salabert, Paris). Conventionally-notated piece involving microtonal singing. Very difficult but rewarding. Recordings may be available.

More than 4 voices

John Cage: Hymns and Variations (publisher Peters Edition). 12 solo voices. Designed for microphone singing (not essential) Gorgeous, empty piece with wonderful simple harmonies. Not difficult. Recording available.

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Stimmung (publisher Universal Edition). 6 solo voices. Designed for microphone singing (not essential). Religious/erotic work (no specific faith, 60s universalism) involving overtone singing. If you can do this, not difficult to perform, but the score is unconventional and needs much deciphering. Recording available.

Luciano Berio: Cries of London (publisher Universal Edition). 8 solo voices. Conventionally notated, quite difficult. Recording available.

Luciano Berio: A-Ronne (publisher Universal Edition). Two versions, one for 5 voices, one for 8. Semi-theatre piece designed for actors, so not much difficult music. Marvellous fun piece rather in the style of Sequenza iii but much easier. Recording available.

Igor Stravinsky: Ave Maria and Pater Noster (publisher Boosey & Hawkes). Choir SATB. Lovely, austere settings of these two Christian texts. Not that difficult. Recordings avilable.

... and don't forget Mouth Symphony, folks...