Ithaca College

Crystal Peebles, Timothy Johnson, and Sara Haefeli will present on Caroline Shaw's Partita for 8 Voices at Forest Home Chapel on Thursday, December 13, 7:00-8:30pm. The event is free and open to the public. 

These three faculty members of the Music Theory, History, and Composition Department at Ithaca College have been collaborating on scholarly work related to Shaw's Pulitzer Prize-winning vocal piece that was featured on the Grammy award-winning album by Roomful of Teeth, an extraordinary vocal group of which Shaw is a member. Dr. Haefeli will discuss the collaborative nature of the piece, including aspects of its idiosyncratic notation and the way in which the piece invokes a sense of community, both through its notation and its performance practice. Dr. Johnson will discuss Shaw's incorporation of wall drawings by Sol LeWitt through the texts that she borrows and through an analysis of how line connecting points in the musical structure. Dr. Peebles will discuss the progression of change in the vocal timbres of the piece in connection with research in music cognition, and how these sounds produce an emotional response of awe and joy from audiences. The presentation will include musical examples to illustrate their talk, and a question and answer session will follow the presentation. 

All are welcome to attend this presentation at Forest Home Chapel, 224 Forest Home Drive, Ithaca, NY. The beautiful chapel (1915) is on the National Historic Register. The talk, part of  the Conversations for an Engaged Community series, will be held in the fellowship hall, accessible via chair lift.