Sleep Songs by Palace Green Library published on 2020-07-24T08:21:39Z Sleep Songs by Miriam Quick, 2018 Sleep Songs are music written around and inspired by breathing data. In 2018, Stefanie Posavec and Miriam Quick tracked their breathing patterns and those of their husbands for a night as they slept, using data gathered from Spire Stone trackers. Miriam then created two pieces of choral music that use the breathing rate data as inspiration and creative constraint. Each piece represents a night’s sleep for a different couple. One second of music equals two minutes spent asleep. The data is grouped to generate five sets of rhythms in the alto parts (Miriam and Stefanie’s breaths) and tenor parts (their husbands) that have the same total duration as our real breaths, sampled every 10 or 15 minutes. These musical ‘breaths’ move in and out of sync as their breathing speed fluctuates over the course of the night. Sleep Song 01 Miriam and Tom Night of 29-30 August 2018 Time to fall asleep When we sleep, we breathe together When we sleep, we dream alone Sleep Song 02 Stefanie and Steve Night of 17-18 September 2018 When we sleep, our bodies breathe When we sleep, the air is still When we dream, our minds dance When we sleep, our bodies rest When we sleep, our minds are still Credits Performed by musicians from the Department of Music, Durham University. Conductor: Theo Golden Recording and production: Simone Tarsitani Sleep Songs was commissioned by the Life of Breath project and first exhibited at the Catch Your Breath exhibition, Palace Green Library, Durham, 2018. Genre Choral Contains tracks Sleep Song 1 by Palace Green Library published on 2020-07-24T08:21:36Z Sleep Song 2 by Palace Green Library published on 2020-07-24T08:21:30Z
