Joby Talbot Paper

Joby Talbot: An Analysis of Path of Miracles and Ave Verum Corpus Richard Carrick MUSIC 484: Choral Repertoire of the 20th-Century Dr. Giselle Wyers March 19, 2019 Carrick 1 Joby Talbot’s composition portfolio is quite impressive and well diversified. Born in London in 1971, Talbot began his musical studies as a young child playing piano and oboe, and performed his first composition at age 9.1 Talbot then went on to study music and composition at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College and then earned his Master of Music in composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he studied with Simon Bainbridge.2 Following his studies at Royal Holloway, Joby Talbot toured with a rock band, The Divine Comedy, for nearly a decade. This choice in career path is more unconventional than other composers in the classical music genre. Talbot’s role with the band was to create arrangements, serve as Music Director, and conduct the orchestra that would accompany the band. While touring with The Divine Comedy, Talbot simultaneously composed music, receiving commissions from the Kings’ Singers, the BBC Philharmonic, Paul McCartney, and film- studios.3 Joby Talbot’s film credits includes the music to several major motion pictures. Two of the movies he scored with the highest grossing box office are, Sing! and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Talbot also composed the theme music and television and film scores to the popular British Series, The League of Gentlemen.4 In addition to film scores, Talbot has composed many Ballets, and recently premiered his opera, Everest, with Dallas Opera. Clearly Joby Talbot has enjoyed a successful career as a composer and musician since the early 1990s. However, it wasn’t until he composed Path of Miracles in 2005 that he gained a larger audience in the choral music world. Talbot was commissioned to write this piece of music by Nigel Short and his ensemble, Tenebrae. Since then, the piece has become wildly popular among audiences 1 Joby Talbot, Interview by Kaya Savas, December 6, 2016, at 57 seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv4Jqd9VfGw 2 Joby Talbot, “About,” section of his website, accessed February 11, 2019, Http://www.jobytalbot.com/about. 3 Joby Talbot, Interview by Darryn King, October 9, 2015 https://darrynking.com/2015/10/09/interview-joby-talbot/. 4 Joby Talbot, “Selected Works” section of his website, accessed on February 11, 2019, http://www.jobytalbot.com/works/#/screen/ Carrick 2 and choirs across the world. The popularity of Path of Miracles has steadily blossomed since Tenebrae’s premiere and recording. Numerous ensembles excerpt single movements, and the piece was recorded for the second time in 2015 by the Grammy award winning ensemble, Conspirare.5 In the 2018 and 2019 concert season alone, Path of Miracles has been performed in concert by many of the world’s top ensembles, including: The Singers – Minnesota Choral Artists, Westminster Choir College, Sydney Philharmonia, Tenebrae, and Luminous Voices.6 Because of the difficulty of the work, Path of Miracles is performed almost exclusively by professional-level choirs. Despite this broad success, Talbot’s choral output comes in at a mere seven published compositions.7 First, this paper will examine one of Talbot’s un-recorded compositions, Ave Verum Corpus. It will provide some parameters describing postminimalism and explain how Talbot’s music fits into this category. The paper will provide a brief description and analysis of the work, focusing on Talbot’s use of text painting. Next, the paper will describe the famous pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago, define the Codex Calixtinus, and examine the influences the pilgrimage and historical document had on the composition of the Path of Miracles. Joby Talbot wrote Ave Verum Corpus in 2006, just one year after the premiere of Path of Miracles. Ave Verum Corpus was commissioned by the Norfolk and Norwich festival. It was premiered by the Festival Chorus and Academy of Ancient Music, conducted by John Aplin.8 Joby Talbot sets the text in a postminimalist style. Postminimalism is difficult to define because it is such a new genre of composition, however Joy Meade identifies some characteristics of postminimalism as follows: 5 Talbot, Joby. Path of Miracles. Performed by Conspirare, conducted by Craig Hella Johnson. Harmonica Mundi, 2015. CD 6 Talbot, Joby. “Calendar.” Rent Performance List. Accessed on March 19, 2019. 7 Talbot, Joby. “Selected Works.” Works List. Accessed on February 3, 2019. 8 Joby Talbot, Ave Verum Corpus. London: Chester Music Ltd, 2006, p. 1. Carrick 3 “Postminimalism is strongly influenced by the minimalist style that precedes it as exemplified by the works of Philip Glass by retaining many of the same characteristics: repetition, phase shifting, and additive processes. However, Musicologist Kyle Gann suggests postminimalism is not so highly structured, and allows for strict process and free composition to coexist.”9 This quote helps clarify how postminimalism evolved from minimalism in that it borrows many of the same techniques but gives the composer more freedom of expression because they are not bound by rules of process. Therefore, while the music sounds similar to minimalism, postminimalism gives the composer the opportunity to utilize techniques like text painting. Examples of postminimalism can be found in the compositions of John Adams, whom Talbot admires. Talbot states: “Growing up as an orchestral player, I want to hear my music programmed in concert halls next to my favorites […] I think I’d like to be where John Adams is, his music is part of the orchestral canon now.”10 Elements of postminimalism can clearly be heard in Talbot’s own compositions. Joby Talbot’s use of repetition, small melodic fragments, cluster chords, parallel fifths, unprepared dissonances, and juxtaposition of ancient music devices with modern devices make Ave Verum Corpus a great example of postminimalism.11 The following paragraphs will highlight aspects of postminimalism in the Ave Verum Corpus, as well as the places where Talbot uses text painting. The tonality of Ave Verum Corpus is E-Dorian. Because the text is both sacred and hundreds of years old, Talbot’s choice to use one of the church modes is very appropriate. The primary theme in Ave Verum Corpus is a descending motive of B-G-F#-E. This theme is found at the very beginning of the piece in the soprano and alto voices, doubled exactly by the strings (See figure 1). The atmosphere is stiff, as Talbot instructs the ensemble to play delicately and 9 Meade, Joy Elizabeth, and Daniel J Bara. Pilgrimage and Postminimalism in Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles. PhD diss., University of Georgia, 2016, 64. 10 Anderson, Porter. “Music For Writers: Joby Talbot On The ‘Path Of Miracles.’” Thought Catalog, May 22, 2015. 11 Meade, p. 66. Carrick 4 always rhythmically. This instruction is yet another aspect of postminimalism, which often uses repeated rhythms and a consistent tempo.12 Talbot sets the text carefully and purposefully, using text-painting throughout the piece. The beginning of the piece is slow-moving polyphony, however the texture briefly becomes homophonic on the word “homine,” meaning “mankind.” Perhaps this shift in texture is symbolic of the sacrificial death of Jesus for all mankind, not just individuals. Another example of text painting can be found when the choir sings “Cujus latus perforatum, unda fluxit sanguine,” which means, “Whose side was pierced whence/water flowed blood.”13 On the word “perforatum,” meaning “pierced,” he writes an F# and C#. Talbot seems to be using the visual representation of the sharps to represent the piercing of Jesus’ body. To further accentuate the piercing motive, Talbot instructs the violins to play pizzicato. Bach used sharps to represent piercing in the Saint Matthew Passion and other cantatas. Utilizing compositional devices of previous generations is commonplace among minimalist and postminimalist composers.14 Figure 1: Primary Theme, found in measures 1-3 from Talbot’s Ave Verum Corpus 12 Meade, p. 66. 13 Jeffers, Ron. Translations and Annotations of Choral Repertoire: Volume 1: Sacred Latin Texts. Corvalis: Earthsongs, 1988. p. 105 14 Meade, p. 67 Carrick 5 From measures 65 to 96, the sopranos carry the text alternating between F major and G major harmonies, while an arpeggio outlining an E-Minor-9 chord is being played by the strings. At measure 97 the harmonies shift from E-Minor to E-Major for the first time, which occurs on the phrase: “O Jesus sweet.” The “sweeter” sounding major-tonality is another example of Talbot paying careful attention to text setting. Additionally, the primary motive (B-G-F#-E) is played in a descending melodic figure in the strings, which creates a flowing texture (See Figure 2). Figure 2: Measures 57-60 of Talbot’s Ave Verum Corpus. Ron Jeffers states that the text to the Ave Verum Corpus “focuses on the great symbol of Baptism: the pouring forth of water from his pierced side.”15 This descending figure truly sounds like the water flowing from Jesus’ side. Examples of text painting continue when the sopranos sing the words, “truly [Jesus] has suffered and was crucified on the cross for mankind.” On this 15 Jeffers, p. 105 Carrick 6 phrase, the sopranos sing a descending scale in parallel 3rds. Because the scale is in E-Dorian, there are unexpected dissonances for modern listeners. This dissonance is a very appropriate reflection of the text, which refers to suffering. The choice to have the scale be descending can be interpreted as the suffering coming from God in heaven (high) for men and women on Earth (low). The piece ends in a very subdued manner, with the basses singing alone on an E2 before fading away to nothing.

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