Sonia Boyce
For You Only You, 2008
The Castle Keep, Newcastle upon Tyne
28.02.2008 - 09.03.2008
A triptych video installation of a collaborative project that addresses the boundary between classical music and sound art. For you, only you comprises the fusion of a musical masterpiece of the early 16th century - Tu solus qui facis mirabilia (You alone can do wonders) by Josquin Desprez – sung by Alamire and contemporary sound art by Mikhail Karikis.
Her partners in this enterprise were Alamire, a consort of some of Britain’s finest early music singers led by conductor David Skinner, and the Greek composer Mikhail Karikis.
Josquin is one of the most influential composers in the history of Western music, representing the pinnacle of compositional development in the early Renaissance period. Other composers of his generation used his pieces as templates for their own work and the current project is a 21st-century response to Josquin’s seminal polyphonic innovations.
The relationship between classical music and sound art is the subject of ceaseless debate and Boyce's project explores that relationship further by juxtaposing the specific role and use of voice in the early Renaissance music of Josquin with the extended vocal techniques employed by Karikis. The mesmerizing performance was projected as a triptych on three separate screens within the Great Hall of the Castle Keep.
For you, only you has been organised in partnership with the Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art, University of Oxford, the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, Milton Keynes Gallery and the Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo.
