The Hours
A 24-hour collage of sound and live performance from The Clerks
“one of the most inventive early music groups around”
Musical Opinion
“a new side of early music'”
Daily Telegraph
“it's where The Clerks are performing over the next two weekends that makes their project so eye-catching . . . A swimming pool. A sewage pumping station. And a waterworks . . . These Victorian edifices were the "cathedrals" of their day.”
The Times on 'In Memoria'
Celebrating worldwide traditions of worship
The Hours celebrates the impulse to pray and to praise; an impulse shared by the faithful of all the world religions, and one which has inspired the finest art, literature and music.
Drawing on the universal poetry of the Psalms, The Hours presents multifarious sounds, voices and music in a tapestry which is at times abstract, and at times intensely direct and human.
In the final two hours, the diverse elements of the collage coalesce into a live performance featuring Taverner’s sumptuous Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas, whose dense, polyphonic lines have previously been heard fragmentarily.
Format
The Hours is a flexible work, which can be adapted to suit a variety of spaces and situations. It will consist of a number of thematically linked panels which can be added or removed so as to produce a work lasting 6, 12 or 24 hours. In the final two hours, the diverse elements of the collage will coalesce into a live performance. We suggest that the start time of the final performance is advertised as (e.g.) ‘7.00 for 7.30’, enabling audiences to experience (or re-experience) the recorded collage for a while before the live performance starts.
Intended as a way to explore and illuminate space through sound, The Hours is intended to work in a single venue as well as a complex of spaces. The installation will consist of up to six channels of sound at any one time, which can be heard simultaneously in a single space – a concert hall or church, for example – and, if appropriate, relayed from that space to other spaces within a larger building. A further possibility is to broadcast different channels in entirely different spaces, making The Hours a ‘walk-about’ experience.
Content and Repertoire
The pre-recorded panels which make up the main part of The Hours will be connected in various ways – by spoken elements such as a full recitation of the Book of Psalms, by the polyphony of the Renaissance masters John Taverner and Jean Ockeghem, and by elements especially recorded in community and educational workshops (see below). In the course of the penultimate hour, live elements will be introduced and coalesce into a fully live performance featuring Taverner’s sumptuous Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas, whose dense, polyphonic lines have previously been heard fragmentarily.
Community and Education
Wherever possible, a performance of The Hours will be preceded by education workshops in which fresh content can be recorded. These sessions will encourage participants to think creatively about the creation of sequences of sound and how these might reflect the overarching themes of the project. Communities of different types could also be engaged to contribute content: church groups, work colleagues etc. For example, visitors to St Ethelburga’s in Bishopsgate, where the installation is to be ‘road-tested’ will be encouraged to record their readings from the Book of Psalms and also to record prayers, be they secular or sacred. The Hours is intended to be in part a record of its own creation, and thus also an expression of the character and aspirations of the places it visits.
Jonathan Green (composer/producer) studied jazz, classical composition and music technology at Leeds College of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire and the Academy of Music in Cracow, Poland.
As a sound engineer Jonathan has worked throughout the UK and Europe, most notably with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, AGON (Milan), Athelas Sinfonietta (Copenhagen), IRCAM (Paris) and the BBC Proms. Jonathan has worked alongside numerous composers and conductors including Julian Anderson, Jonathan Harvey, Phillipe Leroux, Luca Francesconi, Oliver Knussen and Pierre-André Vallade to name a few, and performed for Pierre Boulez as part of the 'Boulez in Birmingham' event in 2008.
Jonathan's music has been performed at leading festivals and concert series including the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Corsham Festival, SightSonic Festival (York) and the BMIC Cutting Edge Series. Jonathan was featured alongside collaborator Sarah Nicolls on BBC Radio 3 to discuss "Into Movements" (2007) - a composition for piano and motion sensors.
Jonathan has held some various institutional roles including NESTA Music Technology Entrepreneur Fellow, Medici Fellow (research position at the Department of Art, Birmingham City University), Lecturer (Technology Innovation Centre, Birmingham) and he currently works at the Centre for Music and Science, University of Cambridge.
Forthcoming Performances: See the Events Page
