Héloïse
(2022-2025)
for soprano, pianoforte, keyboard synthesiser & electronics
I. Meeting At Night II. It Is All So Alive III. My Mouth Like An O IV. Sprung V. Doubt VI. Lookaholic VII. Torment VIII. Flung Down IX. Please Return X. Isomnia XI. Future Tense XII. New Worlds XIII. Memories XIV. How To Be A Woman XV. Parting At Morning
text by Nikki Gemmell
for Lucy Fitz Gibbon & Ryan MacEvoy McCullough
score available through The Australian Music Centre
duration: 50’
genre: Song, Electronic
category: Ambrosia, Esoterica
Héloïse is a setting of fifteen poems, especially written for this song cycle. The poems are from the perspective of Héloïse, a renowned French woman of letters from the Middle Ages, outlining her often colourful, sometimes tumultuous life.
The voice of Héloïse resonates down through the centuries. Her vivid letters to her husband Abelard are 850 years old, yet her thoughts on love, religious doubt and marriage indignation feel strikingly modern. In response, the poet has given her a recognisably contemporary voice. We experience the wonder of a breathless school girl; her ecstatic sexual awakening; the reality check of suddenly being young and married; the tender rescue of motherhood; the trauma of public scandal and a hugely violent separation; her guilt over that; her impetuous flight to a convent; spiritual self-doubt; the anchoring of home; and finally. the solace of a deep and abiding friendship with her old lover – and a religious acceptance - towards the end of her life.
The choice to concentrate only on Heloise’s voice in this song cycle is an act of radical centering. Throughout history, Heloise has been presented as the impetuous, love-struck younger pupil of Abelard, the wise older philosopher, and yet she more than holds her own with the boldness of her thoughts. It feels like time this feisty, playful, deeply intellectual medieval woman is the star of her own show.
To that end, the setting of these poems – some fifty minute of music – is dominated by one voice: the soprano. This avatar of Héloïse travels through a kaleidoscopic scape of old and new sounds, mirroring her compelling life journey and most poignant revelations. Heloise is certainly challenged and challenged often: the keyboard parts are intricate and assertive, sometimes in counterpoint, sometimes in parallel, and their power is reinforced by a wide array of electronic samples, evoking both the contemporary and contemporaneous. Nevertheless, throughout all that, she holds her own, propelling her words, thoughts and feelings into the present through the great magnifier of music.
