Color photograph of a light skinned man wearing glasses a blue button-up shirt; he looks at the camera with his hands in his pockets

Anthony Vine

Rome Prize in Musical Composition
1 settembre 2023–12 gennaio 2024
Professione
Composer in Residence, Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School
Titolo del progetto
Little Clay Vases
Descrizione del progetto

Earthen pots, jars, and vases were lodged in the masonry of many medieval churches. These objects functioned as resonators. Cantors and choristers would sympathetically excite these vessels with their singing, causing ephemeral sonorities to emanate from the upper recesses of the church, amplifying and enhancing the sung liturgy. As a composer concerned with spatial resonance and psychoacoustics, I have felt a profound connection with this whimsical feat and seek to engage the subject in an aesthetic, hands-on way. While in residence at the American Academy in Rome, I will visit vessel-laden churches in Italy and explore their inner voices—basking in their reverberance, singing into resonators, conversing with the monastic community, and listening to mass. I will braid documentation of these experiences into a multichannel audio/video installation that introduces audiences to the spectralities and histories of this largely unknown archaeoacoustic subject.