Creating moments that never were

Virtual Music Project: creating moments that never were

Upper voices 

Through the magic of the Virtual Music Project, it’s possible to create artificial moments, ones that could never have existed due to the current lockdown, but which can be conjured forth nonetheless – virtual moments that ought to have been.

As I’ve been building the virtual performance of the second movement of Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria,’ I’ve been able to create two such instances; sectional rehearsals that would, in the normal scheme of things, have taken place, but which circumstances have conspired to deny the choir the chance of undertaking. As part of the normal rehearsal process, you would have been able to take the individual voice-parts separately – sopranos, altos, tenors, basses – to address particular issues of ensemble sound; diction, breathing, vowel-shapes, rhythm, all the myriad technical issues which the rehearsal process is used to iron out. So, here’s two such moments; firstly, a virtual soprano sectional, created as I layer each individual soprano recording into the project:

https://soundcloud.com/daniel-harding-90933651/vivaldi-et-in-terra-pax-virtual-soprano-sectional-excerpt

And secondly, an upper-voices virtual sectional, similarly bringing together the soprano and alto members of the virtual choir, this time without the continuo (harpsichord and cello) beneath:

https://soundcloud.com/daniel-harding-90933651/vivaldi-et-in-terra-pax-upper-voices-only-excerpt

What I love particularly about the second recording is how, without the supporting

harmonies beneath the combined upper-voices, you can really feel the dissonances the unfurling voices create against each other, those highly expressive moments which are all the more effective for floating in isolation (oh the irony…). Suspended above the area where the bass parts would normally be, it shows Vivaldi’s palette of musical expression working through moments of tension and release, and, without the lower parts, sounds almost contemporary in places. An artificially-created moment providing an insight into the piece’s expressive workings.

Now to add the other voices…