Invisible Cities Choral & Electronic Music by Marco Galvani SANSARA Marco Galvani (b.1994) Tom Herring arsc director 1. ALEPH [3:02] 2. Lamentaons I [4:48] 3. Ubi caritas [4:45] 4. Lamentaons II [5:58] 5. BETH [3:14] 6. Ave sancssima Maria [3:44] 7. Ave maris stella [5:04] 8. Alma Redemptoris Mater [3:21] 9. GHIMEL [4:26] 10. Super flumina Babylonis [4:51] 11. O sacrum convivium [6:16] 12. DALETH [5:10] About SANSARA: Total playing me [54:47] ‘SANSARA slips easily into the elite ranks of exceponal performers...breathtaking’ Choir & Organ ‘[...] perfect intonaon and a clean, pure sound...choral singing with real depth’ The Observer Invisible Cies imagined – are a recurring theme in the novel and something we wanted to draw on as we Invisible Cies is a sequence of sacred choral contemplated the album anew. works and electronic refracons composed by Marco Galvani. The album was inially The recording sessions in October 2020 were conceived as a collecon of Marco’s choral the first me the choir had sung together in music, selected to showcase his disnct person in several months and a mely voice and consolidate our relaonship reminder of the power of a cappella choral with him as one of our Associate Composers. music. Our aim was to invest the music with In March 2020, everything changed, and a sense of longing and passion – giving voice we had to postpone our original recording to feeling in a me of social isolaon. sessions. There runs an invisible thread that binds Suddenly, we were spread all over the UK, one living being to another for a moment, not knowing when we would be able to then unravels, then is stretched again meet, let alone sing together. We began to between moving points as it draws new and reflect on how best to reimagine the project rapid paerns so that at every second the to address the extraordinary circumstances unhappy city contains a happy city unaware of the pandemic and its paralysing effect of its own existence.* on society the world over. During this me, certain passages of text from the repertoire began to take on fresh significance. In The sequence is built around Marco’s seng parcular, the famous line from the of the Lamentaons. Originally commissioned Lamentaons of Jeremiah: ‘Quomodo sedet by Jeremy Summerly for The Queen’s College sola civitas plena populo’ / ‘How lonely lies Chapel Choir in 2013, they exemplify his the city that was full of people’. unique brand of polyphony mixed with passages of stasis and rich chordal textures. As cies around the world fell silent, we were We first performed the set at the 2016 reminded of Italo Calvino’s novel Invisible Passionde at Merton fesval in Oxford and Cies, with its fantascal places and have wanted to record it ever since. meditaons on humanity – vividly described Throughout, Marco explores modal harmony by Marco Polo to the ageing Emperor Kublai with each tonal centre derived from the Khan. Connecons between people – real or chant passages that open the two parts. This Calvino-like structural device es the or another,’ Marco answers, ‘but by the line destrucon of Jerusalem and the plight of The inferno of the living is not something whole set together, underpinning the surface of the arch that they form.’ those in exile. Super flumina Babylonis is that will be; if there is one, it is what is textures with a subtle yet steady harmonic Kublai Kahn remains silent, reflecng. Then a lament for the lost city, with its remarkable already here, the inferno where we live trajectory. he adds: ‘Why do you speak to me of the line ‘Quomodo cantabimus cancum Domini every day, that we form by being together. stones? It is only the arch that maers to in terra aliena?’ / ‘How do we sing the Lord’s There are two ways to escape suffering it. Drawing on famous sengs by composers me.’ Polo answers: ‘Without stones there song in a strange land?’, strikingly set here The first is easy for many: accept the such as Thomas Tallis and Alonso Lobo, Marco is no arch.’ * by Marco. Jerusalem has become an inferno and become such a part of it that gives considerable space to the Hebrew invisible city, exisng only in the memory you can no longer see it. The second is leers that punctuate the verses. Each one One of the core quesons posed by this of its capve and homeless populaon. As risky and demands constant vigilance and is disnct in texture and colour, and yet they album is how sacred texts can speak to us with the Lamentaons, this text resonates apprehension: seek and learn to recognize all reside in the same dimension – a meless today, parcularly beyond performance in today – parcularly for refugees fleeing war who and what, in the midst of the inferno, space above and beyond the plane of the religious contexts and Chrisan spaces. The and persecuon around the world, but also are not inferno, then make them endure, more descripve passages. These passages middle secon of the sequence features in the global context of the pandemic. The give them space.* form the basis for the four electronic tracks sengs of three Marian texts, each with closing verses speak of the importance of on the album which frame the choral pieces, a strong sense of devoon to the queen collecve memory – the imagined worlds At me of wring in March 2021, we remain drawing threads between them and and gate of heaven. It is this idea of a of the mind’s eye. in a liminal phase – caught between two providing space for reflecon. celesal portal that gives this triptych its worlds, the past and future simultaneously structural role in the wider context of the The final choral work in the sequence is illusory and unreal. This album is our aempt Between the two parts of the Lamentaons sequence, forming the central phase with Marco’s seng of O sacrum convivium. This to capture something of this moment, is Ubi caritas, with its upliing message of two connected but independent worlds text is also about memory and imaginaon, recorded in the midst of this stretched charity and love. Marco’s seng stems from before and aer. inspired by the ‘sacred banquet’ of Holy out ‘in between’. We invite you to listen the plainsong chant which is presented in a Communion where the memory of Christ’s to the sequence in full and for it to be the series of variaons punctuated by more Travelling, you realize that differences are Passion is renewed, ‘the mind is filled with soundtrack to personal reflecon – as declamatory passages. With its reserved lost: each city takes to resembling all cies, grace, and a pledge of future glory to us is Marco Polo observes in Invisible Cies, sense of opmism, this piece represents places exchange their form, order, distances, given.’ Marco’s approach to the text is ‘it is not the voice that commands the the importance of community and hope a shapeless dust cloud invades the parcularly striking for its slow and steady story; it is the ear.’ in mes of fear and uncertainty. connents. Your atlas preserves the increase in tempo and energy. Beginning differences intact: that assortment of with calm stasis, the music changes gear © 2021 Tom Herring with each new line of text unl the Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by qualies which are like the leers in a name.* rapturous ‘Alleluia’ bursts through in stone. ‘But which is the stone that supports cascading melodies in all voice parts before * Calvino, I. (1997) Invisible Cies. Trans. the bridge?’ Kublai Khan asks. gradually dissipang back to sllness. William Weaver (Vintage, London): p74, ‘The bridge is not supported by one stone In the Lamentaons, we hear of the p125, pp133–4, p148 Texts and Translaons 2. Lamentaons I Incipit Lamentao Jeremiae prophetae. Here beginneth the Lamentaons of the Prophet Jeremiah. ALEPH. ALEPH. Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo! Facta est quasi vidua domina genum; How lonely lies the city that was full of people! princeps provinciarum facta est sub tributo. How like a widow has she become, she that was great among the naons! BETH. She that was a princess among the cies has become a vassal. Plorans ploravit in nocte, et lacrimæ ejus in maxillis ejus: BETH. non est qui consoletur eam, ex omnibus caris ejus; She weeps bierly in the night, tears on her omnes amici ejus spreverunt eam, et fac cheeks; sunt ei inimici. among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies. 3. Ubi caritas Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Where charity and love are, God is there. Congregavit nos in unum Chris amor. Christ’s love has gathered us into one. Exultemus, et in ipso iucundemur. Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him. Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum. Let us fear, and let us love the living God. Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero. And may we love each other with a sincere heart. Amen. Amen. Offertorium on Maundy Thursday 4. Lamentaons II De Lamentaone Jeremiae prophetae. The Lamentaons of the Prophet Jeremiah. GHIMEL. GHIMEL. Migravit Judas propter affliconem, et Judah has gone into exile because of multudinem servitus; afflicon and hard servitude; she dwells now habitavit inter gentes, nec invenit requiem: among the naons, but finds no resng place; omnes persecutores ejus apprehenderunt her pursuers have all overtaken her in the eam inter angusas. midst of her distress.