Bestiary I & II (amplified soprano & harp, chamber orchestra and electronics) by Bekah Simms

Performed January 19 2020 in Mazzoleni Hall, Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, by the Glenn Gould New Music Ensemble under the direction of Brian Current.
Kendra Dyck, soprano.
Allison Janney, harp.
Andrew Gordon Bell and Bekah Simms, electronics.
Recorded by Pouya Hamidi.

Programme note: Bestiary I & II, for amplified soprano and harp, chamber orchestra and electronics, is a compendium of creatures and plantlife that inhabit the musical narratives of singer/songwriter/harpist Joanna Newsom on her album "Ys." Starting with a simple quotation of one of Newsom's introductory harp lines, the electronics envelop and populate this new musical landscape in strange ways, growing darker. The following movements, "Fauna" and "Flora," treat simple musical and text material with a warbling reverence. Much of the material - both acoustic and electronic - is gleaned from Newsom's music in some way, especially the digital artefacts of her unique voice when slowed down in extreme ways.

Using the fantastical and sometimes surreal aesthetics of Medieval European bestiaries as a guiding principle, the source material is filtered through a fog with the intention of creating a more curious kind of beauty.