James Weeks: Mala Punica Exaudi & James Weeks

• James Weeks (1978): Walled Garden I - Mala Punica:
• 1 Quae Est Ista11:40
• Mala Punica:
• 2Ego Flos Campi02:08
• 3Ficus Protulit03:32
• 4Hortus Conclusus - Walled Garden II - Veni in Hortum Meum17:29
• 5Dilectus Meus02:58
• 6Descendi06:36
• 7Donec Aspiret Dies - Walled Garden III10:04
• Total Runtime54:27

Info for James Weeks: Mala Punica

With its roots in Egyptian and Mesopotamian love poetry and fertility rites, the Song of Songs is the greatest pæan to human love in ancient literature. Its verses describe a love-song from man to woman to man, flitting between lover and beloved in a mosaic of iridescent, enigmatic imagery familiar from its co-option into Judaeo-Christian religious traditions and a millennium of European musical settings. Rereading the Song as literature today seems only to emphasise its sharpness and extremity: the inexhaustible overabundance of metaphor and its patchwork construction give it a decidedly modern edge.

Mala punica is series of eight pieces based on the biblical Song of Songs, focusing on the vegetable and horticultural imagery of the poem. Like many of my recent works this series is focused on ‘elemental’ or fundamental materials and processes, each piece being a canon or group of canons, and built from simple or restricted melodic elements. I was particularly interested in the conjunction of the lushly erotic texts (a temptation but also a potential pitfall for the composer) and the technical rigour demanded by the canonic forms: as if the sensuality of the textual material required the system to bind it. Equally I was concerned that the musical material – the melodic lines which were to be subjected to canonic treatment – should be open and broadly modal, so that the resultant music would exist in a tension between the open, ‘natural’ consonance of each line and the often highly intense dissonances generated by placing them in strict canons. Each piece takes an image from the text as the basis for its structure: for example, the rising plume of smoke in Quae est ista is translated into coils of canonic lines tracing upward spirals; Ficus protulit and Descendi use the image of burgeoning nature as the basis for textures of increasingly dense polyphony: flowers waving in a gentle breeze give the oscillating figures of Ego flos campi and Hortus conclusus. Hortus conclusus, a complex texture comprised of three layered canonic systems, stands at the centre of the cycle as an emblem of the whole: I imagine Mala punica itself as my own ‘enclosed garden’ of eight somewhat exotic plants.

Exaudi (Mala Punica)
Hortus Ensemble (Walled Garden)
James Weeks, conductor

EXAUDI
is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles for new music. Founded by James Weeks (director) and Juliet Fraser (soprano) in 2002, EXAUDI is based in London and draws its singers from among the UK’s brightest vocal talents.

EXAUDI’s special affinity is for the radical edges of contemporary music, at home equally with maximal complexity, microtonality and experimental aesthetics. The newest new music is at the heart of its repertoire, and it has given national and world premières of Sciarrino, Rihm, Finnissy, Fox, Posadas, Oesterle, Crane, Eötvös, Ferneyhough, Gervasoni, Skempton, Ayres, Pesson, Poppe, Mažulis and Fox among many others. Through its commissioning scheme, EXAUDI is particularly committed to the music of its own generation, and is proud to champion the work of significant voices including Aaron Cassidy, Evan Johnson, Bryn Harrison, Amber Priestley, Matthew Shlomowitz, Joanna Bailie, Cassandra Miller, Andrew Hamilton, James Weeks and Claudia Molitor.

EXAUDI is also strongly involved with the emerging generation of young composers, and regularly takes part in composer development schemes and residencies such as SaM Portfolio, Voix Nouvelles Royaumont, IRCAM Manifeste Academie and Aldeburgh composer residencies, as well as workshops at universities and conservatoires throughout the UK. EXAUDI has particularly strong links with the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and City, University of London, where it is an Ensemble in Residence.

EXAUDI’s many international engagements include Wittener Tage, Darmstadter Ferienkurse, Musica Viva (Munich), Muziekgebouw (Amsterdam), IRCAM (Paris), Festival d’Automne (Paris), Voix Nouvelles (Royaumont), Pharos (Cyprus), Musica (Strasbourg), MAfestival (Bruges), CDMC (Madrid), MITO Settembre (Milan/Turin), Fundaciò BBVA (Bilbao) and Quincena Musical (San Sebastiàn). The ensemble has also collaborated with many leading ensembles including musikFabrik, Ensemble Modern, L’Instant Donné, London Sinfonietta, BCMG, Talea (NY) and Ensemble InterContemporain.

EXAUDI has appeared at many leading UK venues and festivals, including Spitalfields, BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, City of London, Bath, FuseLeeds, Manchester International Festival and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festivals, Wigmore Hall, Café OTO, Kings Place and South Bank. EXAUDI broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3 and European radio stations, and has released eleven critically acclaimed recordings on the NMC, ÆON, Métier, Winter&Winter, Mode, Confront and HCR labels. Their recent recordings of James Weeks’ Mala punica/Walled Garden, Gérard Pesson’s Cantate = Pays and Michael Finnissy’s Cipriano, Tom Fool’s Wooing, Kelir and Gesualdo: Libro Sesto will be released in 2017-18.

Future projects for 2017 include Stefan Winter’s multimedia performance installation Poem of a Cell (San Sebastiàn and Munich), Chromatic Renaissance (Vicentino, Rore, Lassus and Weeks) at Aldeburgh Festival, Posadas Tenebrae with Ensemble InterContemporain (Paris) and Laurence Crane’s Pieces About Art at the PRSF Biennial (London and Hull).

On 1st April 2017 EXAUDI celebrates its 15th birthday at Wigmore Hall with a programme of Arcadelt, Weeks, Monteverdi, Wert and Sciarrino.

James Weeks
Born in Blackburn in 1978, James Weeks read Music at Cambridge before completing a PhD in Composition at Southampton University with Michael Finnissy. His music has been commissioned and performed by leading performers including Alison Balsom, EXAUDI, Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea, Endymion, Anton Lukoszevieze and Christopher Redgate. He has been featured at UK and European festivals including City of London, Spitalfields, Vale of Glamorgan and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festivals, Soundwaves Brighton, Cutting Edge (London), Gaudeamus (Amsterdam), Weimarer Frühjahrstage and Mafra (Portugal).

Recent major works include the Harmonies of South London series (for various ensembles, 2008 -), Burnham Air (for oboe d'amore, 2008), Hototogisu (for children's choir, 2007) and Mala punica (for eight solo voices, 2008-9). He is currently writing a substantial work for voices and instruments entitled Parnassus, and a triptych of pieces with electronics for Apartment House.

As a conductor, he is best known for his work with the contemporary specialists EXAUDI, the vocal ensemble he founded with the soprano Juliet Fraser in 2002. With them he maintains a busy international touring schedule, collaborating regularly with the world's leading composers, new music soloists and ensembles, and has released four acclaimed CDs on NMC, of Finnissy, Fox, Lutyens and Skempton. The ensemble specialises in the most complex new and experimental music, often presented alongside repertoire from the Renaissance or early baroque.

He was appointed Musical Director of the New London Chamber Choir in 2007 in succession to James Wood, and is in great demand as a guest conductor, choral animateur and tutor. He is also active as an organ recitalist, pianist and writer on contemporary music, and broadcasts regularly on early and new music for BBC Radio 3.

Booklet for James Weeks: Mala Punica