Composition Process: The "Overture" Composition [BoMoH]

Extracted from the podcast interviews, the story tellers offer us a vivid description of the cultural setting of the narrative. In this description we are offered recurring themes that involve various forms of spirituality, though among the most common is Muslim culture and Islam.

In one podcast the narrator describes the scene of the possession as a site that is at once an eerie swamp of mystical trees and a Muslim burial ground. The speakers alert the listener to the pervasive influence of Malay culture which is described as "ancient", "aboriginal" and "Islamic". The central figure of the narrative, the Bomoh, is a symbol of the diverse spirituality of Malay culture. It is this protagonist that embodies the complex intertwining of ancient animism, indigenous spirituality and mythology, as well as some of the most iconic elements of the Muslim tradition.

The cultural setting described in the source interviews also offers detail from the perspective of sound and music. In another podcast the narrator describes a dawn chorus of wooden frames, hollow drums and other wooden objects to signal the Islamic call to prayer. The listeners are informed that the sonic presence of Malay culture, particularly in regards to the formal elements of institutionalized religion, is noisy and cacophonic. 

It is from all of this detail that inspiration will be found for the development of the musical document for the overture or introductory composition. This music document will be inspired by these notions of "antiquity", "aboriginality" and "Muhammedism". These three concepts will be realized with respect to musical aesthetic and notation; the sound of the music as well as the design of its performance document will recall the cultural inheritance of Islamic and Animistic traditions in Singapore.

For the aesthetic of bombastic Muslim music, I wish to draw upon my personal experience, which sounds a little something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFYmqLIGHYs
This clip encapsulates, from the drums, rhythmic interplay, call-and-response structures, instrumental timbre, the sound of a celebratory religious ideal. It has the vibrancy and color to offer an ostentatious introduction to the cultural/motivic collage that this chamber opera represents.
Missing from the above clip is the timbre of wood and the idea of cacophony (although the clip is noisy!). To fulfill this requirement, I plan on utelising computer music technology and the acousmatique.

For the notation of this overture I wish to draw inspiration from a recent discovery; the Oldest known musical document: the Hurrian Hymn from Ancient Mesopotamia. Some rudimentary/introductory information is available here:
http://individual.utoronto.ca/seadogdriftwood/Hurrian/Website_article_on_Hurrian_Hymn_No._6.html
This ancient document, discovered in what is modern day Syria, is written in cureiform script and outlines a system of musical terms and subsequent numbers. The correct musical interpretation for this cuneiform notation is unclear and there is continuing dispute among specialists, however, within this interpretive speculation is a wide ranging set of possibilities for musical exploration of a language that is the cultural inheritance of all Middle-Eastern cultures, including Islam. According to the research offered by sources including the link above, most historians agree that the vast majority of those terms scripted in cuneiform refer to a series of musical intervals and related numbers. I will use the visual aesthetic of the cuneiform script, as well as the system of musical intervals and numbers, as inspiration for the development of the "overture" musical document.

This "overture" composition will be an energetic introduction to the multimedia chamber opera. It will not directly "summarize" the musical materials of the entire work. Rather, this opening composition will represent the deep sense of "antiquity" that the thematic and symbolic source material embodies.

This composition will be scored for two high reed instruments (probably altissimo saxophones) and computer music.