“One evening while I was teaching a music education course at Strassbourg University in France, a group of us attended a party given by one of the faculty members. Since my French was not fluent, I drifted off into another room and discovered an old gramophone that seemed to be speaking texts that were repeated over and over. As I watched the turntable spinning, I saw and heard "the sounds go round." One moment one voice woule seem to be louder, then a different voice would take over while the others drifted away. As I continued to listen to the regurgitations of the machine, this sound-poem came to me. This setting for three choirs commissioned by Soundstreams Canada is an abbreviated version of the full spoken text - a poem which has accompanied me worldwide to conferences and workshops and which captures the elusive playfulness of our ever-changing soundscapes. Je n'ai jamais vu un son, but I have "heard the sounds go round."
R. Murray Schafer (2013)
Performed by:
Elmer Iseler Singers
Pro Coro Canada
Vancouver Chamber Choir
Kaspars Putniņš (conductor)
Commissioned by Soundstreams with generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council