as i wade through viscous mud (2021)

for SATB Choir

About the work:
as i wade through viscous mud is an evocation of the experience, the sounds and the feeling of wading through wetland mud. Through the experience of wading one becomes connected to, enveloped but not stuck in, and indeed enmeshed and interconnected with mud in a system of movement, resistance and envelopment. In this system, every movement you make becomes amplified in a rich sensory experience: your weight shifting sinking you deeper into the mud, the effort required to lift your feet out of the mud, how the mud clings to your legs. It is also a sonic experience, with the sounds of your breath as you struggle against it interacting with the sounds of the mud as it first resists and then attempts to hold you in.

There is very little text in this work. I played with ideas of using text but instead through experimentation found that rich phonetic textures, transitions, and shifts were a more effective way to both metaphorically and more literally evoke this experience of wading. Small phonetic inflections that reflect the sonic changings, the resistance in quietly repeating notes, sonic changes in altering an underpinning vowel, and moments of rich spectral harmony all combine to create this assemblage of sound. In the one instance where non-phonetic (ie. normal) text is written care should be taken to blend it into the larger assemblage of sound that the work creates. It should be both noticeable as text but as if it is a natural arising from all that has come before.