A collaborative project exploring the music of the voice and the ‘ūd from medieval to contemporary sounds, culminating in a new composition by Marcus Davidson for vocal trio (Voice), ‘ūd (Khyam Allami), and cello (Tara Franks).
The title and libretto are taken from an existing poem by the late Iraqi Assyrian poet Sargon Boulus (1944-2007) translated from Arabic into English by the Author.
The 25 minute work draws on the unique sounds and individual qualities of the vocal trio Voice and ‘ūd player Khyam Allami, exploring the meeting of performing traditions from the east and west. Creating a new sound source for the, as yet, unexplored combination of ‘ūd, voice, and cello.
Toured throughout UK June 2011
Thanks also to PRSF who supported the creation of The Ziggurat Builders
LISTEN – to a clip from the Premiere held at St Ethelburga’s Centre
The Ziggurat Builders Flyer 2011
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The poetry:
Ancient Sanskrit prayer
Om jabakushuma sankasham, kashyapeyam, mahadyutim
Dhantarim sarva – papaghnam pranotohasmi divakaram
Who’s redness at dawn is that of the hibiscus flower
Child of Kashypa, O great light
You hold for us all our sins
We therefore bow down to you, O herald of the day
The Ziggurat Builders
Sargon Boulus
from The Knife Sharpener (Banipal, 2009, pp.108-109)
They were
the first dreamers
who embodied the shape
of a dream in clay:
a stairwell of prayers
that will scale
the heights.
They knew:
a stranger once
passed among them,
and disappeared.
His shade
will be redeemed
in the form
of a ziggurat –
this ship of the gods
whose figurehead
will rend the clouds.
And learned:
it is a sea of time,
on whose shore
from time to time,
we might glimpse
an ancestor’s
figure in white,
who will nod to us
across a thousand years
and wait for his ship
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