Songs from the Deep (2022) - Juhi Bansal

Songs from the Deep (2022)
Composed by Juhi Bansal
Performed by:
Performed by the UCLA Philharmonia
Neal Stulberg, conductor
Recorded live Sunday, April 28, 2024, Hear Now Music Festival Orchestra Concert
Hear Now Music Festival April 24-28, 2024
Link to SCORE: www.dropbox.co...
Program notes:
Jaques Cousteau wrote of finding freedom below the ocean’s surface, and I would add that one might find inspiration there as well. Below the waves lies a world that is both surreal and familiar, a place of transcendent calm, of weightlessness, of motion and stasis juxtaposed. Sounds underwater become physical - vibrations felt as much as heard - and as in the lapping of waves, gentle chatter from reefs, and sounds of wildlife, the lines between movement, noise, sound and music start to blur. Inspired by an experience hearing humpback whale songs while diving, Songs from the Deep pays homage to an immersive soundscape of water, movement, current and flow; of changing colors and shifting light; of wild voices emerging out of chaos.
Commissioned by the Oregon Mozart Players for the 2022 Sound Investment Commission.
Short description:
In addition to what's in the program notes, the piece combines moving, shifting soundmasses and colouristic textures with melodies drawing upon Hindustani ornamentation to evoke voices rising from the deep. It also features a spatial element with two string quartets pulled out from the tutti ensemble to create a feeling of rapid movement and flow, as if the listener is surrounded by moving water. Some additional photos and sketches here that may be useful:
juhibansal.com...
Composer Bio:
“Radiant and transcendent”, the music of Juhi Bansal weaves together themes celebrating musical and cultural diversity, nature and the environment, and strong female role models. Her music draws upon elements as disparate as progressive metal, Hindustani music, spectralism, sound design and choral traditions to create deeply expressive, evocative sound-worlds. As an Indian composer brought up in Hong Kong, her work draws subtly upon both those traditions, entwining them closely and intricately with the gestures of western classical music. Recent projects include Love, Loss and Exile, a song cycle on poetry by Afghan women commissioned by Songfest; Songs from the Deep, a new orchestral work inspired by humpback whale songs commissioned by the Oregon Mozart
Players; Waves of Change, a digital experience on womanhood, identity and clash of cultures inspired by the story of the Bangladesh Girls Surf Club; and Edge of a Dream, an opera about Ada Lovelace, daughter of infamous poet Lord Byron and a 19th Century pioneer in computing commissioned by Los Angeles Opera. Recent seasons have included commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Beth Morrison Projects, the New York Virtuoso Singers, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, AIDS Quilt Songbook 20th Anniversary project and more. Her music is regularly performed throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia and available on the Naxos, Albany and Roven Records labels.
www.juhibansal.com