Concert 3: Time. Quince Vocal Ensemble performs Morton Feldman’s Three Voices

About Quince

Quince Ensemble is a treble voice quartet dedicated to changing the paradigm for contemporary vocal chamber music. Described as "the Anonymous 4 of new music" by Opera News, Quince continually pushes the boundaries of vocal ensemble literature. By performing almost exclusively the music of living composers, and actively commissioning works with a broad and curious aesthetic ear, we seek to create a landscape of contemporary vocal music that is embodied, complex, and expressive, with the musical boldness and virtuosity that is often reserved for instrumental groups.

As dedicated advocates of new music, Quince regularly commissions new works for voices, providing wider exposure for the music of living composers. In 2019, they launched the Quince New Music Commissioning Fund, a fund to grow the repertoire for women and treble voices. Through educational activities, Quince works to bring this music to a larger community of singers and listeners, offering new and empowering pathways to vocal excellence. Quince has released four studio albums, Realign the Time, Hushers, Motherland, and David Lang's love fail, all available on iTunes, CD Baby, Spotify, Bandcamp, and Amazon. 

Quince has been featured on many festivals and series like KODY Festival in Lublin, Poland in collaboration with David Lang and Beth Morrison Projects, the Outpost Concert Series, the Philip Glass: Music with Friends concert at Issue Project Room, University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium, and the SONiC Festival in New York, to name a few.  

Comprised of vocalists Liz Pearse (soprano), Kayleigh Butcher (mezzo soprano), Amanda DeBoer Bartlett (soprano), and Carrie Henneman Shaw (soprano), Quince thrives on unique musical challenges and genre-bending contemporary repertoire.

About tonight’s piece

"Three Voices" by Morton Feldman is a composition for solo voice with two pre-recorded tracks of the same singer, creating a layered vocal experience. Written in 1982 for the American soprano Joan La Barbara, this work is one of Feldman’s significant explorations of sound, space, and time.

Overview of the Work

"Three Voices" is a highly intimate and introspective piece that reflects Feldman’s interest in subtle shifts and slow transformations in music. It unfolds over approximately 50 minutes, during which the soloist sings live while accompanied by two recordings of her own voice. This creates a delicate interplay between the present, immediate sound and its recorded echoes, building a rich yet restrained texture.

Structure and Form

The piece is structured in several sections, which oscillate between passages of near-stillness and more complex rhythmic patterns. Feldman uses intricate rhythmic structures and precise pitch choices to create a sense of suspension, where time seems to stop and the listener is drawn into a deeply immersive sound world. Despite its minimal materials, the music constantly evolves through subtle shifts, with moments of near silence contrasting with denser textures.

Inspirations and Themes

"Three Voices" is partially inspired by Feldman’s friendship with the poet Frank O’Hara, whose poem Wind provided some of the text for the piece. The words are sparse, fragmentary, and often inaudible, as Feldman was more interested in the abstract sound qualities of the text than in conveying a literal meaning. This approach to text setting reflects his view that music should evoke rather than narrate, focusing on creating an emotional atmosphere rather than telling a specific story.