´óÏó´«Ã½

Donald Macleod is in the company of British composer Jonathan Harvey.

The orchestra learns to speak in one of Harvey's most ambitious and complex works to date - Speakings, which was premiered at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Proms 2008. As the composer himself explains it: 'The orchestral discourse, itself inflected by speech structures, is electro-acoustically shaped by the envelopes of speech taken from largely random recordings. The vowel and consonant spectra-shapes flicker in the rapid rhythms and colours of speech across the orchestral textures. A process of 'shape vocoding', taking advantage of speech's fascinating complexities, is the main idea of this work.'

One Evening... (1993-4) for soprano, mezzo-soprano, ensemble of eight players and electronics (4th mvt)
Sarah Leonard (soprano)
Mary King (mezzo-soprano)
Ensemble Intercontemporain
Stefan Asbury (conductor/electronics)
Accord 465 281-2, Tr 4

How Could the Soul Not Take Flight (1996) for unaccompanied double SATB chorus
´óÏó´«Ã½ Singers
David Hill (conductor)
Specially recorded for Composer of the Week on 13 March 2009

Speakings (2007-8) for orchestra and electronics
´óÏó´«Ã½ Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov (conductor)
Live concert recording - City Halls, Glasgow, 5 March 2009.