Scriptorium

Scriptorium (tracks 4-7) pushes more deeply into the 21st century, through novel instrumentation and a modernist counterpoint evocative of the medieval Ars Veterum practices. Written for Byrne:Kozar:Duo, the work sets four poems by Melissa Range. The poems (selected from the book of the same name) explore mortality, divinity, and faith using the written page and the ink required by sacred texts as a core metaphor for explorations of divinity. The described mechanics of medieval ink production are beautiful and disturbing in the same gesture, with vibrant colors, destruction at a vast scale, and perduring doubt inter-threaded Throughout the collection, isorhythm and polyphony counterpoint evoke the subtle play between poetic theme and musical form found in the Ars Nova, while amplifying the dark philosophy of Range's poetry.