Gabrieli à 2(2)

Jamie Savan + Adam Woolf + John Ayers

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Published in 1615 Sonata XX in 22 parts is the largest and most ambitious of Gabrieli's instrumental works. The instrumental ensemble is divided into five choirs, each of which would have played from a different strategic location in the church for which this piece was almost certainly written, the basilica of St Mark's, Venice.

Using a computer and surround-sound technology, this monumental work is performed with just two period instrumentalists who play all twenty-two parts in a live multi-track recording.

Layering up two parts at a time in eleven passes allows us to explore the compositional process from the inside: this is polyphonic music that was conceived in terms of the controlled interaction of 'horizontal' melodic lines,
rather than in terms of 'vertical' harmony.

For Connecting Principle we will be presenting a specially recorded version for five speakers and will be played on a loop, building from two lines to twenty-two over a period of around an hour and a half.

Jamie Savan - cornett
Adam Woolf - sackbut
John Ayers - electronics

For more info see:
http://www.jamiesavan.com/
http://soundcloud.com/guessmen/gabrieli-a-22-finalmix