Nemesi (unaccompanied choir)

Commissioned by 2011-2012 New Zealand Secondary Students Choir with funding from Creative New Zealand, Nemesi was premiered The New Zealand Secondary Students Choir (NZSSC) and Andrew Withington (musical director) at the Sacred Heart Cathedral of Wellington, New Zealand on 14 April, 2012.

Nemesi is based on the Greek mythological character Nemesis, the goddess of indignation against, and retribution for, evil deeds and undeserved good fortune. Nemesis' duty is to direct human affairs in such a way as to maintain equilibrium.

This seven-minute work incorporates body percussion within the SATB choir to produce a complex rhythmic blend of voice and body percussive soundworld.

Passages of interlocking and layered voices, continuously changing time signatures, along with homophonic writing are offset by the syncopated sounds of body percussion to propel the music forward, producing an innovative and dynamic work.

I was able to hear this piece once live. There's a link to the video below. For some reason the performance, on the day, was significantly above tempo - the piece is meant to feel quite heavy - with the footstomps and claps. There should be a sense of ritual and chanting. But at this tempo it's quite upbeat.

As many composers know, a midi demo of a choral work is generally not something to share, so this video is the only existing record of the work. I don't seem to have the best luck with writing choral works. Or vocal music in general - which I ascribe to my own very real singing phobia. I listen to Nemesi now and realise I couldn't escape my dependency on percussion, even in an a capella vocal work!