Colors
for 3-Part Treble Voices
The Transient Glory series presents new choral works by some of America’s
most engaging contemporary composers, specially written to celebrate
the art of children’s choirs and the transient but glorious nature
of young singing voices. The works, which were all commissioned for
a concert performance series by the Young People’s Chorus of
New York, promise to make a significant addition to the repertoire
for children’s and youth choruses.
Colors is a Soundpainting. Soundpainting is the composing/conducting
language created by New York composer Walter Thompson for musicians,
dancers, poets, actors, and visual artists working in the medium of
structured improvisation. At present this language includes more
than 700 gestures signed by the composer/conductor indicating the type
of improvisation desired of the performers. Soundpainting is live composition.
Colors incorporates 15 gestures from the Soundpainting language and
can be easily and quickly learned by a conductor. Colors enables a
choir director to both inspire and guide the innate creativity of his
or her chorus. As a choral composition based on structured improvisation,
Colors allows for each performance to be fresh and unique while maintaining
an overall structure. This is a wonderful and accessible piece for
learning about improvisation, composition, and notation systems in
a new music context.
© 2008 Walter Thompson • All rights reserved.