VIEWING ROOMS (2019)

For bass voice and piano four-hands. Also available for bass voice & piano.
Originally composed in 2016-17 for countertenor Brennan Hall. Recomposed in 2019 for bass Andrew Munn.

Duration: ca. 10:30

PROGRAM NOTE

Viewing Rooms projects three gay voices within dissimilar chambers, each momentarily frozen in his tracks: C.P. Cavafy, at the turn of the 20th Century, chafes in his sealed room which is safer than the exterior world. Tennessee Williams toys with his desire in a 1950s bedroom, holding the tension between himself and another. And Garth Greenwell, observing a huge French nightclub in 2012, slams into the limitless possibilities of the new century. Instead of a narrative of sexual repression and liberation, I'm interested in the atmospheric pressure around these texts, in conjuring the conditions of these charged, fragile spaces.

The work was developed with Chimera, a vocal collaborative hub co-founded by bass Andrew Munn and pianist Rami Sarieddine, through performances in Berlin and Paris.