Olivia Stahn & Tim Karweick
BICINIEN (cdb001). LP + Download.
Two voices: a bicinium, a form of composition. In this case: sung melodies, two voices at the near limit of polyphony. An idea of harmony: each melody is for itself and each voice is for the other. Harmony, a quiescent distance between voices. The principle of harmony is distance.
The singers Olivia Stahn (soprano) and Tim Karweick (tenor) made a choice selection of bicinia from the 14th to the 17th century. They recorded the compositions and the resulting album ‘Bicinien’ will be released on Corinne de Berne, in late summer 2017.
The selection includes well-known spiritual songs reformed in bicinium form such as works by Michael Praetorius (1571 – 1621) and Caspar Othmayr (1515 – 1553).
The pieces “Agnus Dei” and “Pleni sunt coeli” are both sections taken from a larger work, “Missa Pange lingua” by Josquin Desprez (1450 – 1521). Guillaume de Machaut‘s (1305 – 1377) “Riches d’Amour” is a love song.
Bicinien is the result of a wholistic production process: Stahn and Karweick’s initial selection of pieces, the spacial constellation of their collective and individual voice, the space of Heilig-Geist-Kirche in Wohltorf, the recording techniques. Bicinien is not so much a document as a figural material pliable still for a new ear. Bicinien is released for the listener on vinyl (including free download).