The Swingles return to the BBC Proms on Tuesday 30 July to give the world premiere of a new piece by Anna Clyne with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Collon.
Anna Clyne’s new score The Gorgeous Nothings sets seven of Emily Dickinson’s envelope poems – fragments of poetry that she wrote on scraps of paper and envelopes. These little treasures are glimpses into the process of the great American poet. Scored for The Swingles (seven amplified voices) and orchestra, this work explores the sonorities of the voices in conjunction with those of the orchestra through the lens of Dickinson’s poetry. Additionally, The Gorgeous Nothings utilizes the Augmented Orchestra (AO) whereby sounds from the orchestra are modified in real time with live electronic processing. The AO is a collaboration with sound designer Jody Elff who created custom software to facilitate the live processing. The 20-minute score was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and The Swingles.
Watch a short film about the new piece: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0j9b9xz