Snow
Snow is a sound work which weaves a poetic monologue into a twenty-minute piece for choir, flute and electronics.
Inspired by the restless spirits of the ancient Japanese Noh theatre, where song and spoken word are fused, Snow features the voice of legendary New York performer Peggy Shaw and the flute-playing of virtuoso Yukihiro Isso.
In Snow, Shaw moves back and forth between a lyrical spoken style and hushed, incantatory singing. Thrown into darkness under the snow, she attempts to unmask her own demons as her past, present and future collapse in the wake of an unnamed betrayal.
Paul Clark’s rich score is set against the stark poetry of Shaw’s words. The multi-speaker sound design envelops the audience, moving from the intimacy of whispered text to the soaring choral song – all as Isso’s flute struggles to take flight…
Snow was originally commissioned by the 2018 Noh Reimagined festival.
Suzy Willson - Direction; Paul Clark - Music; Suzy Willson & Peggy Shaw - Text; Voice - Peggy Shaw; Hansjörg Schmidt - Lighting
Singers - Alex Ashworth; Clara Kanter; Daniel Thomson; Elaine Ashworth; Emily Burn; Gareth Treseder; Laurence Williams; Victoria Couper
Noh Flute - Yukihiro Isso
Kings Place, London (part of the 2018 Noh Reimagined festival)
30 June 2018
Clod Ensemble Studios, North Greenwich, London
29-31 March 2023
"Very beautiful and atmospheric. At times it was as though we were wrapped in a warm and comforting blanket of sound and light." Planet Hugill (2018)
“[I]t revels in its ambiguity and creates a very different sense of space and pace – if you go with its flow, you emerge from the fog slightly bewildered but gently beguiled.”
The Stage (2023)
Commissioned by MU:Arts
Development supported by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation
