Bedford: Or Voit Tout En Aventure, für Sopran und 16 Spieler

These six movements are settings of three texts written in medieval French and Italian, which are linked in some way by the theme of music. They all exist as songs written in the latter part of the 14th century, which I have shamelessly torn from their original musical context and treated purely as texts.

I was attracted to them by two things. Firstly, by the sheer strangeness of the words and their distance from us. I did not update the texts to modern French or Italian, but chose rather to set them as they are. Secondly, despite this, I also enjoyed the relevance of what the texts say – not only about contemporary music, but also on music’s power to communicate.

Or Voit Tout... is a fascinating text, as it is somewhat unclear whether it is a roar against the state of music in the late 1300s, or an ironic defence of it, as the song itself uses many of the ‘unnatural’ musical techniques decried in the text.

The odd-numbered songs are linked, not only by the fact that each one is a separate stanza of Or Voit Tout… but also by their musical material. The even-numbered songs are similarly linked musically, with the second movement acting as a very short instrumental intimation of what is to come in the fourth.

All of the movements are played without a break – except for at the end of the fourth song.

Luke Bedford