The SWR Donaueschinger Musiktage went ahead in the form of a series of online evets in 2020 when the live events had to be cancelled. In January, a recent video addition has been made to this roster on SWR Classic entitled ‘Elaine Mitchener: On Being Human As Praxis’ with a programme of new music including Tansy Davies’ song cycle, The rule is love. Elaine Mitchener, vocal and movement artist, gave the world premiere of The rule is love back in November 2019 with London Sinfonietta at Kings Place, London and is here joined by the instrumentalists of MAM. Manufaktur für aktuelle Musik for the German premiere and first video broadcast. The film, by Bettina Ehrhardt, was recorded over 15 and 16 October 2020 at the time of the planned live festival event.
Watch ‘Elaine Mitchener: On Being Human As Praxis’ on SWR Classic here.
‘On Being Human As Praxis’ refers to the title of a critical genealogy of the work of Sylvia Wynter edited by Katherine McKittrick and The rule is love responds directly with two settings of a single text by Wynter and another two settings of a text by John Berger. It is programmed here alongside four other new works by Jason Yarde, Matana Roberts, Laure M. Hiendl, and George Lewis.
The rule is love was commissioned by London Sinfonietta, Kings Place, and Südwestrundfunk, supported by a collection of private donors. Elaine Mitchener previously worked with Tansy Davies’ on the premiere of the opera Cave which is available to watch on the London Sinfonietta site here.