The boundaries between clinical biology and metaphysical experience are the focal point of a significant new contribution to contemporary music-theatre. Composer-saxophonist Lydia Kenny and librettist-singer Olivia Bell have announced the premiere of BEAT, a verbatim song cycle that utilizes a diverse instrumentation of saxophone, bass clarinet, harp, voice, and electronics to interrogate the definition of vitality. The work serves as a sonic investigation into the “strange pulse” of existence, centering on the provocative inquiry of whether a beating heart is the sole prerequisite for being alive.
The structural foundation of BEAT is built upon an expansive eclectic archive, synthesizing documentary evidence with lived experience. The libretto is a curated tapestry of first-hand interviews, NHS instructional literature regarding leeches, newspaper fragments, and TED talks focused on cryobiology. This verbatim approach integrates overheard conversations from public transit with modern social media discourse, creating a multi-layered narrative that shifts between the medical and the mystical. By incorporating sacred texts from varied faith traditions and testimony from palliative care professionals, the work examines the cross-cultural rituals that demarcate the transition from presence to absence.
Musically, the piece operates within an electro-acoustic framework, blending the organic timbres of woodwinds and harp with synthesized textures. This “documentary music-theatre” aims to deconstruct societal assumptions regarding mortality through a collage of voices—ranging from the archived to the living. The performance personnel features Olivia Bell on voice, Lydia Kenny on saxophones, Mared Pugh-Evans on harp, and Kathryn Titcomb on bass clarinet, with vibraphone by Robbie Wills and electronic mastering by Manish Sanga. The result is a surrealist yet grounded exploration of the human condition, moving through the “slippery territory” that exists between scientific fact and spiritual silence.
The performance is scheduled for Tuesday, January 27, at 7:30 pm. This single-night engagement will take place at the Canal Café Theatre in London and has a running time of approximately 60 minutes.
