Availability

Score 0571540139 on sale

Programme Notes

Forms of Emptiness is a work for mixed choir which sets words from the Buddhist Heart Sutra, in the original Sanskrit, and three poems by E.E. Cummings. The E.E. Cummings poems all have emphasis on the here and now, on ‘catching the joy as it flies’. Seeker of truth Follow no path All paths lead where Truth is here Against these vivid flashes of joy and colour is set a chant - the sanskrit of the Heart Sutra - which acts as a ground from which the ‘forms of emptiness’ briefly emerge, and against which they are comprehended as transient, scarcely real. There are references to other ‘sacred styles’ as well as that of the chant - to those of Palestrina and Messiaen for instance. Jonathan Harvey

Forms of Emptiness

St James's Church, Sussex Gardens (London, United Kingdom)

Joyful Company of Singers/Peter Broadbent

Forms of Emptiness

BBC Radio 3 (United Kingdom)

Martyn Brabbins/BBC Singers

Forms of Emptiness

Recital

BBC Radio 3 (United Kingdom)

BBC Singers/Martyn Brabbins/Marco Blaauw/Sound Intermedia

Forms of Emptiness

Afternoon on 3

BBC Radio 3 (United Kingdom)

BBC Singers/Martyn Brabbins

Forms of Emptiness

will be broadcast

LSO St Luke's (London, United Kingdom)

Marco Blaauw/BBC Singers/Martyn Brabbins/Sound Intermedia