Performed on November 5, 2023, as part of Cantori New York's fall concert series at Church of the Holy Apostles, 296 9th Ave, NYC. This was its NYC Premiere.

Caroline Shaw became the youngest person ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013, at age 30, for her Partita for 8 Voices. In the years since, she’s solidified her reputation as an uncommonly versatile musician and composer, garnering multiple Grammy awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.

A talented violinist and vocalist in her own right, Shaw is also a longtime member of Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. She composes for film, television, theater, and ballet, and has worked with a diverse array of artists ranging from Yo Yo Ma to Renée Fleming.

Recent projects include the soundtrack to the television miniseries Fleishman Is in Trouble, music for the National Theatre’s production of The Crucible, and the premiere of her work Microfictions Vol. 3 for the New York Philharmonic. Shaw describes herself as “a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed.”

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OCHRE
by Caroline Shaw

Cantori Commission & New York City Premiere

00:00 Caroline Shaw's Intro
3:28 OCHRE I. Siderite
7:22 OCHRE II. Limonite
11:13 OCHRE III. Maghemite
15:46 OCHRE IV. Magnetite
19:28 OCHRE V. Hematite
24:00 OCHRE VI. Vivianite
27:41 OCHRE VII. Goethite
31:28 Applause

Lyrics at: https://cantorinewyork.com//s/Ochre-N...

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Of OCHRE, Shaw says: “Ochre is a contemplation of the Earth, of our past, of those who came before us, of our understanding of the scale of geologic time, of how our actions today affect the planet in the future, of regret, of an appreciation for the beauty of soil, of color, of ochre, of the ancient human desire to paint representations of the world around us.

“I like to write music for voices without text, because it allows the voice to be a colorful instrument independent of language. And I like to combine different kinds of text, fragments from various eras and sources, to build a nuanced frame for thinking about a subject. Ochre lives more in vowels and timbres than in text, but I’ve woven in fragments of Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’ (which frames human existence with metaphors of geologic time, iron ore, rock), as well as a partial setting of Goethe’s ‘Wandrers Nachtlied’ [‘Wanderer’s Night-Song’] in Longfellow’s translation. (Goethe was a geologist, and goethite—a common mineral in ochres—is named for him.) There is also a quotation from Josquin’s ‘Mille regretz’ which is meant to very subtly hint at the sense of regret about the state of climate policy over the last century in the U.S. In general, there is both a mournful quality to this material, but also a sense of joy and wonder about the planet, and really about music and the voice.”

Ochre was in part inspired by Heidi Gustafson, an artist and pigment worker who specializes in ochre. From her Dust to Dust: A Geology of Color:

“Humans are themselves displays of complex sedimentary process. ‘In the human there is material, fragment, abundance, clay, dirt, nonsense, chaos,’ a stone-loving Nietzsche once proclaimed (Beyond Good and Evil, 117). We grow magnetite rocks in our heads, hematite in our organs, carbonates in our bones, gorgeous crystalline geodes in our kidneys, and when we die, our minerals are redistributed, largely as ashes or clumps of carbon, oxygen, calcium, phosphorus, nitrogen, and a handful of other elements. Dust to dust.”

Ochre was jointly commissioned for Cantori New York, The Crossing, and Volti by the Ann Stookey Fund for New Music. This was its NYC Premiere.

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Featuring:
Jared Soldiviero, vibraphone
Matt Kantorski, marimba
Shane Shanahan, percussion

Every Voice Concert Choir
Nicole Becker, Director

Audio: Swan Studios NYC / Andreas Meyer
Video: Jacob McCoy / Richard Berg
Additional footage from Caroline Shaw's Nov 4 intro & audience interactions: Richard Berg

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Cantori New York is an acclaimed chamber chorus specializing in new & neglected music.
https://cantorinewyork.com

Mark Shapiro, Artistic Director

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council.

This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

This program is supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts.