Chant des Voyelles - Incantation of Vowels (no text, 2018) for mixed choir (SSAATTBB) was premiered by Volti on May 4, 2018 at Noe Vallay Ministry in San Francisco and on May 6, 2018 at BAMPFA, in Berkeley, California.
Martinaitytė encountered at the Rockefeller estate Kykuit near New York City a work by the cubist sculptor Jacques Lipchitz called "Chant des Voyelles" . It was titled after an Egyptian prayer composed only of vowels that was designed to subdue the forces of nature. Further research showed that many ancient traditions (Egyptians, Greeks and Tibetans) ascribed sacred, mystical and healing powers and significance to vowels. The details might vary in different traditions, yet it is clear that something miraculous happens through the very act of prolonged repetition of certain vowels - whether in the form of a mantra or prayer or as a self-healing ritual.
This work experiments with subtly shifting, sometimes barely audible clouds of overtones resulting from the sustaining of certain vowels in multiple voices in a magical way.
Duration: 16-17'
The works of New York -based Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė (b. 1973) have been lauded as breathtaking and profoundly moving. Her stimulating music bristles with energy and tension and revolves often around the subject of beauty, which she calls both a guiding principle and an aesthetic measure for sonic quality.
