Nothing ever fell
The fourth and final concert of the series Stimmliche Parallelen presents the British soprano Juliet Fraser. She performs the work «Three Voices» (1982) by the American composer Morton Feldman.
This piece combines two pre-recorded vocal parts with live singing. It is based on poems by Frank O’Hara, who, like Feldman, would have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2026. The words come from two lines of the poem «Wind,» which was dedicated to the composer.
The structure of the piece is spatial, although this is less apparent when listening to a recording. One voice sings to itself and to its doubles, represented in the room by loudspeakers. For Feldman, this was in part, in 1982, a remembrance of his recently deceased friend, the painter Philip Guston. It is a music of mourning.
At the same time, the work is understood as a tribute to Frank O’Hara. After his fatal car accident, the following lines were found in his pocket:
He falls; but even in falling
he is higher than those who
fly into the ordinary sun
Feldman felt that the loudspeakers acted like gravestones. This creates the impression of a living voice coming into contact with two dead ones.
Program
Morton Feldman — Three some (1982)
Musicians
Juliet Fraser (UK) – soprano
Juliet Fraser
Soprano Juliet Fraser has a repertoire dominated by the very old and the very new. Specialising in the gnarly edges of contemporary classical music, Juliet is an active commissioner of new repertoire and has worked particularly closely with composers Laurence Crane, Pascale Criton, Michael Finnissy, Catherine Lamb, Cassandra Miller and Rebecca Saunders. Recent festival highlights include Aldeburgh Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Donaueschingen Musiktage, MaerzMusik (Berlin), Rainy Days (Luxembourg), Wien Modern and TIME:SPANS (NYC).
She regularly performs as a guest soloist with ensembles such as MusikFabrik, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Plus-Minus and Talea, with Quatuor Bozzini, and as a duo with pianist Mark Knoop and with violinist Hannah Weirich. She is committed to the creation of new work for voice, and has recently commissioned pieces by Lara Agar, Newton Armstrong, Carola Bauckholt, Pascale Criton, Nwando Ebizie, Soosan Lolavar, Kristine Tjøgersen and James Weeks. Juliet is also known for breathing new life into existing repertoire such as Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet, Babbitt’s Philomel, Vivier’s Bouchara, Feldman’s Three Voices and Grisey’s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil. Beyond the concert platform, she has worked with choreographer Paola Bianchi, visual artist/shibari practitioner Elie Hanonen and performing artist Satu Hakamäki, theatre director James Macdonald, visual artist Haroon Mirza and filmmaker Jessie Rodger.
In 2015 she released her debut disc, Feldman’s Three Voices (on Hat Hut). Recent releases include all four of her ‘Carson Commissions’: Laurence Crane’s Natural World (Another Timbre), Lara Agar’s This Unquiet Autumn (YouTube), Nwando Ebizie’s I Birth the Moon (YouTube) and Newton Armstrong’s The Book of the Sediments (all that dust). A portrait album on NEOS presents music by Chaya Czernowin, Beat Furrer, Enno Poppe and Rebecca Saunders. Her discography also includes acclaimed recordings of Renaissance polyphony by Lassus, Vitoria and Byrd with Collegium Vocale Gent (directed by Philippe Herreweghe) and, with EXAUDI, the late madrigals of Carlo Gesualdo and microtonal experiments from the 16th century (Chromatic Renaissance on Winter & Winter).
Juliet launched VOICEBOX in 2023, a year-long bespoke programme supporting singers specialising in contemporary vocal performance. She has delivered masterclasses or short courses for Darmstadt Summer School, Voix Nouvelles Academy at Royaumont, Mixtur Festival in Barcelona, Britten Pears Young Artist Programme and the much-missed Dartington Music Summer School. She has served on juries for The Arts Foundation, NCH/Sounding the Feminists, the Ivors Composer Awards and Royal Philharmonic Society, and been a panellist for ROH’s Engender Network and Cheltenham Music Festival’s Composium. Alongside her work on stage, Juliet enjoys writing words about being a performing artist. Recent essays have been commissioned by Sounds Now, Britten Pears Arts, MaerzMusik Festival and the Fragility of Sounds lecture series, presented at Darmstadt and at the Fourth International Conference on Women’s Work in Music, and published in Glissando (#43, co-authored with Fay Jennett), TEMPO and by Wolke. She publishes independently on this website and on Substack.
Juliet is the founder and artistic director of eavesdropping, a platform for experimental music with an annual festival held at Cafe OTO. She is co-director with Mark Knoop and Newton Armstrong of all that dust, a little independent label for new music. She is also co-founder, with James Weeks, of EXAUDI vocal ensemble: she managed the ensemble for twelve years and remains a core member of the group. In 2023 Juliet was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Southampton in recognition of her contribution to the UK’s contemporary music scene.